


Frostwell

by akh, everytimeyougo, nea9



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-19 03:18:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3594357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akh/pseuds/akh, https://archiveofourown.org/users/everytimeyougo/pseuds/everytimeyougo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nea9/pseuds/nea9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At some point while Scully was dozing, the road had disappeared. As had the sky, the trees lining the highway, and indeed, the front of the car itself. (An X-Files MOTW story, set Season 5ish)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone. The three of us have been writing this story since last summer and we're thrilled to finally be sharing it, especially given all the talk lately of an X Files revival. It has provided us with hours of entertainment and we hope it will for you too. The story is COMPLETE and will be updated regularly. We haven't divided it all into chapters yet, but it will be approximately 15 chapters in length.
> 
> Enjoy!

**CHAPTER 1**

 

“Scully. Hey Scully!” Mulder poked his sleeping partner with his right hand, keeping his left hand on the steering wheel. “Wake up!”

“Huh…wha…” Scully opened her eyes and batted his hand away. “Stop it, Mulder.”

“No, seriously. Wake up, Scully. I need you.”

With the edge in his voice slicing through her exhaustion, Scully rubbed her eyes and sat up straighter in the passenger seat. “Why, what’s wrong?”

“Take a look,” Mulder said, gesturing out the window.

She did as he suggested, and her mouth fell open in shock.

At some point while Scully was dozing, the road had disappeared. As had the sky, the trees lining the highway, and indeed, the front of the car itself.

In fact, all the remained of the world outside their little vehicular sanctuary was whipping wind and whirling snow.

“What the hell, Mulder? Where did all this snow come from?”

“I don’t know, Scully.”

“What… Where…” She leaned forward and squinted at the windshield. “Are we still on the highway?”

“Yeah, I think so, but I may have missed our exit.”

Scully turned to stare at him. “Ya think?”

“There’s a map in the dash, see if you can figure out where we are.”

Scully reached forward and opened the glove compartment, pulling out a creased and coffee stained map. She began unfolding it, stopped, and then flipped it around, reading the place names.

“Mulder, this is a map of Southern California. Somehow I don't think that's where we are.” She crumpled it in frustration and shoved it back in the glove compartment.

He shrugged. “We were an hour ago, I… Hey, is that a road sign?”

Mulder stopped the car on what he thought might be the side of the road, and they both squinted into the whirling vortex of snow, trying to read the sign.

“I can’t see it,” Scully said, rolling down her window and giving entrance to a blast of wet and cold.

“Close the window, Scully.” Mulder put the car in park and unfastened his seatbelt.

“Wait, Mulder!” She grabbed on to his arm. “You can’t go out there!”

"I have to. We need to figure out where we are if we’re ever going to get out of here.”

“Okay,” she agreed, reluctantly releasing him. “But keep one hand on the car at all times.”

Mulder got out, and following his partner’s instructions to stay in physical contact with the car, walked around to the front of the vehicle. As Scully watched, he leaned as far forward as he could. Then he looked back at her and shook his head. Holding up one finger to indicate she should wait a minute, he took a step away from the car, and vanished from sight.

“Goddammit  Mulder,” Scully sighed under her breath, her hand instinctively going  to the handle of the door as she watched her partner slip out of her sight. “Don’t make me get out of this car,” she muttered, even as every passing second seemed to make it clearer that it was exactly what she would have to do next.

The snowfall was showing no signs of slowing down and, if anything, the flakes appeared to be growing larger, as if intent on blocking as much of the view as possible. With a deep sigh, Scully turned the key in the ignition, silencing the engine but leaving the headlights on to light her way. Then she opened the glove compartment again and, shoving the crumpled map into the pocket of her trench coat, grabbed a flash light and pushed the car door open.

“Mulder!”  she yelled at the top of her lungs as soon she had set her foot  outside, but any sound she made seemed to be muffled by the snow.

There was no reply.

"Mulder!" she called again, pulling her thin coat around her tightly. The snow pricked the exposed skin of her cheeks and hands ;  the cold air seemed to burn her lungs. “Where are you?”

Taking even a few steps away from the car seemed a bad idea, but she couldn't let him wander around in a snow storm, either. Getting lost in this kind of weather could be fatal.

At least her mind, still foggy from sleep, was starting to clear up a bit. Scully could feel her heartbeat accelerating. She needed to assess this situation first before anything else. Mulder was, after all, not going to be a great help.

According to her watch, it was just past 1 0:00 pm . They had been on the way to a Bureau conference in San Diego , renting their car at the airport on a sunny September afternoon.

Scully was well aware of the fact that snow wasn't completely impossible in the state of California, but it still implied that Mulder had to have taken a rather gigantic wrong-turn at some point on their way further down south.

Turning her flash light on, she squinted her eyes. The snow reflected the light, making it even more difficult to make out her surroundings. That may have been the reason she didn't see the other source of light right away, and may have never noticed it had not his voice suddenly cut through the howling of the wind.

“Scully! I'm over here! You have to see this!”

Scully whipped around, her flashlight shining over the hood of the rental car and across the snow and windswept highway. She could just barely make out Mulder waving to her from the opposite shoulder, a dozen feet down the road. 

“Mulder!” she called, “I can barely see you! Come back here!” Shivering, she shut off her useless flashlight and shoved it in her pocket. Keeping one bare and freezing hand on the car, she carefully walked around to the front driver’s side corner, the closest she could get to her partner without losing contact with the car. 

“Mulder?” she called again.

“No really, Scully,” came his reply, distorted by the distance and the wind. “You need to come here. It’s okay, I can see the car. We won’t get lost.”

His words sounded suspiciously like the ‘famous last’ variety, but Scully knew her partner well enough to know he wasn’t coming back until he showed her whatever he had found. Saying a quick prayer, she took her hand off the car, shoved it in her pocket, and took a cautious step away from the car. And then she took another, and another, each time glancing up and back to make sure the car was still in view behind her and Mulder was still in front of her.

“Come on, Scully. Hurry up!” he yelled impatiently .

"I’m coming!” Scully yelled back, not even attempting to hide the growing  exasperation in her voice. Then, taking one more look towards the now almost invisible car, she hastened her steps to try and bridge the remaining distance between her and her partner.

“I still can’t s….” she began to yell when suddenly her foot hit something on the ground and she nearly lost her balance.

A stone. It was probably just a stone under all the snow.

“Scully?” She could hear that Mulder’s voice was close now, but the ever increasing volume of snow made it impossible for Scully to see much beyond her own outstretched arm.

“Mulder, where are you?” she yelled again, but before she could hear an answer, she felt a set of cold fingers closing around her wrist.

Scully barely suppressed a yelp of fright, and involuntarily tried to pull her hand free. She had not seen him reach through the cold darkness, but he didn't even seem to notice her unease at this strange and possibly dangerous situation.

She could barely make out his face in the now almost complete darkness. Mulder pulled her closer, so he wouldn't have to yell over the wind.

“There is a town at the bottom of the hill!” he called, pointing his finger in the darkness. “I don’t know where we are, but I'm sure we can ask somebody for help there.”

“You can see a town?” Scully asked, scrunching her eyebrows. “How can you see anything?” But indeed, there was an orange glow in the distance – the light of street lamps perhaps?

“Yes, this is a town, definitely! We can spend the night there and drive on tomorrow.”

Scully barely nodded. The cold was getting to her, and all she could think of was getting back into the car. Her clothes felt soaked through already. But could they even drive under these conditions? 

Not letting go of her hand, Mulder started to lead her back to their rental, but she couldn't move.

“Mulder, I'm standing on something…there's  something under the snow.”

He paused briefly, looking down at their feet. Scully opened her mouth, but he was digging his hand into the cold white  snow  already.

Mulder, if you’re not careful, you’re going to get frostbite.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, shovelling through the snow with his bare hands, “Silly me, not packing my furry mittens for a trip to California. Scully, pick up your foot; I think I've got it.”

Not waiting for her to follow his instructions, Mulder took hold of Scully’s ankle and lifted, throwing her off balance and nearly landing both of them in a heap in the snow.

“Mulder, for God’s sake. Let go of me!” Scully struggled, trying to free her leg from Mulder’s grasp, but he held tight.

“Wait, Scully. Look, you’re caught on something.” He held her foot up again, and sure enough, the heel of her right pump was caught in what appeared to be a link of a metal chain. “Take off your shoe,” he said, letting go of her foot and straightening up.

Holding onto Mulder’s arm, Scully slipped off her pump and stood on one foot like a flamingo while Mulder attempted to separate her heel from the chain.

“There,” he announced, freeing her shoe after a brief struggle. 

He passed it back to Scully, who frowned in dismay at the deep gouges in the leather covered heel, before returning it to her foot without comment.

Mulder, in the meantime, was pulling the chain up through the snow. “Look at this, Scully," he said, pulling it hand over hand as it led him off the side of the road. “It goes down there." He pointed down the sloping embankment and into the woods a few yards from the highway.

Scully started to follow, then stopped in her tracks as the end of the chain emerged from the snow, trailing from Mulder's hands. "Uh, Mulder? What's that?"

Mulder turned around and lifted the chain up from the ground. A large iron ring with a broken clasp dangled from the end.


	2. Chapter 2

"Looks like something escaped," Mulder replied thoughtfully, examining the broken clasp. His eyes then followed the chain as far as they could see it, towards the edge of the wood. "Come on, Scully," he said, dropping the iron ring and grasping the chain again. "Let's find out where the other end is." Without waiting for a response, he began marching through the snow down the embankment.

Scully sighed. Then, trying to step into Mulder’s footprints so that she wouldn’t have to make her own trail in the fresh snow, she followed her partner with some difficulty to the edge of the forest.

"I don’t think we should go in there, Mulder," Scully said when she finally reached him, taking out her flash light again and pointing it towards the woods. She could not see anything beyond the first trees. "It’s dark, we don’t know exactly where we are, and we are not dressed for these conditions. We should get back to the car."

"Scully, this is a metal chain, obviously designed to restrain a beast of some sort. How long can it possibly be?" Mulder argued, stepping forward as he spoke. "Besides," he turned back with a grin. "It’s not even snowing anymore."

"You know, it's probably just a leash for a large dog," Scully muttered, looking up at the sky. She could see that the snowing had indeed stopped. It did not, however, change the fact that there was already over a foot of snow on the ground and no lights to be seen anywhere except what came from their car, already at an alarming distance, and her own flash light.

There didn’t seem to be much point trying to reason with Mulder, though.

"Fine," she sighed at last, following her partner. "But if this leads to a kennel, you’re on your own."

Scully linked her left arm with Mulder’s and wrapped her free hand around the icy chain. That way, she could be sure not to lose him in the dark, and profit from his body warmth at the same time. How many times had she been this close to him before in order to keep from freezing, or dying in some other unpleasant way?

Wading through the snow was difficult, but she knew he was not put off by these sort of things.

“Who would leave their dog out in weather like this anyway?” Scully muttered, shaking her head.

"My point exactly," Mulder answered, but didn’t elaborate any further.

Scully shone her flashlight against a row of trees and several bushes covered by heavy snow. "I'm not sure, but the vegetation seems different than what you would normally see in this part of California…" she said, more to herself than him.

Suddenly Mulder stopped in front of her, causing her to bump into him.

"Scully…" She immediately detected to warning in his voice, and carefully pointed the light straight ahead.

A dark hole in a rock face had appeared in front of them, the chain leading right into it.

"A cave?" Scully whispered, her breath visible as little white clouds.

"Yeah. You think maybe whatever was attached to this chain is in that cave?" he asked.

"I don't know," she said, "but I don't think we need to find out. Come on Mulder, let's go back to the car. Aren't you freezing?"

"The thrill of discovery is keeping me warm," he told her.

"The thrill of discovery?" she asked doubtfully. "It’s a cave and a rusty old chain and maybe a rabid dog. I don't see anything here that requires discovering."

"Where’s your sense of adventure, Scully? It’s a chain, lying in the middle of the road, on a snow-covered highway, that shouldn’t, by all climatic laws, be snow-covered at all. And in fact Scully, I would bet good money that if we tried to find this particular highway on that map you have there in your pocket, it wouldn’t even exist according to the laws of the Department of Transportation. And furthermore, the chain we found on this ghostly highway, if I may call it that…"

"You may not," Scully interrupted.

Mulder continued as if she hadn’t spoken. "The chain leads us into a large erosional cave which, if I'm not mistaken, shouldn’t exist by geological law, at least not in this region of California. That’s three laws broken, Scully. Three! And you don’t think we should investigate? What kind of law enforcement officer are you anyway?"

"A cold one, Mulder. A freezing cold, wet and irritated one. That’s what kind."

He just looked at her, one eyebrow cocked. 

Well, at least they’d be out of the wind inside the cave. Harrumphing, Scully shot her partner one last death glare and started picking her way through the snow towards the rocky entrance.

"You don’t actually know anything about the geology of California, do you?" she threw back over her shoulder.

"Nope," he answered cheerfully.

Scully shook her head but could not help a small smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. As frustrating as Mulder could be, it was hard not to be charmed by his boyish excitement.

The cave, as they entered it, appeared to be much bigger than either of them had anticipated from the outside. Scully shone her flashlight around only to discover that the light could not reach the back of the cave.

"Mulder," she said, turning apprehensively to look at her partner. "This is a big cave. I can't even see where it ends."

“Then let’s find out,” Mulder replied simply, starting to walk towards the impenetrable darkness.

"Mulder, no!" Scully shouted after him. "It’s dark, I’m freezing, and I don’t think my flashlight has much battery power left in it."

Finally her words seemed to have some effect on Mulder as he paused and, after a moment of hesitation, walked back to where Scully still stood. Putting his hands first on her shoulders and then sliding them down to where her hands were, his face grew serious.

"Your hands are cold," he said, rubbing them vigorously between his own.

"So are yours," Scully replied, her teeth chattering.

"Okay, Scully," he finally conceded, taking off his own coat and placing it on Scully’s shoulders despite her protests. "We go down to that town I saw, get some provisions, and come back first thing tomorrow morning when there’s more light."

Scully nodded gratefully and gave his hands a squeeze. 

"Good idea!" she replied, barely masking her sarcasm.

They needed to get back to the car. Mulder was right – there were too many strange things going on here that needed to be assessed first. The snow, their loss of orientation…Scully turned around and looked into the darkness of the cave again.

"This cave would provide an ideal habitat for any type of large animal," she reasoned, taking a step closer to Mulder. "There have recently been sightings of cougars in California."

Mulder reached for the chain again, using it to guide them through the dark once more.

"Something tells me whatever lived here was not a cougar," he said, briskly rubbing her upper arms to generate a bit of warmth. "Either way, we can find out about this tomorrow."

She smiled despite herself. "Yes. But please Mulder, let’s go, before whatever lives here returns home."

The flashlight went off.

"Great." Scully muttered.

"Don’t worry, I can find the way back," he said, linking their arms again.

It wasn't difficult to follow the traces they had left in the snow, holding onto each other and the strange chain.

"We’re almost there," Mulder said, tightening his grip on her arm. Sometimes, she thought, it was like he could read her mind. He always knew when he could push her just a little farther, but when she was at her limit, in patience or endurance, or both, he knew that too. "Look there's the tree line."

And sure enough, with a dozen more steps, they had emerged from the trees, climbed the slight incline, and came to stand on the highway again.

The snow continued to swirl around them, but the wind seemed to be easing, and no new flakes were falling. The beams flowing from the headlights of the rental car appeared to penetrate the darkness more fully than they had earlier and Scully heaved a sigh of relief that the car battery seemed in better shape than the one in her flashlight.

They continued across the road and Mulder followed her around to the passenger side and opened her door for her. "Milady," he joked as he helped her in.

She rolled her eyes, but with the state her feet were in, she appreciated the assistance. As Mulder walked back around to the driver’s side, she reached over, turned the key in the ignition, and as soon as the engine roared to life, cranked the heat up to the highest setting.

Mulder got behind the wheel, closed the door, and put the car into drive. Just as they were pulling away from the shoulder, he hit the brakes. "Hey Scully, look. I can read the sign now."

And sure enough, the road sign that Mulder had left the car to look at in the first place, was now completely legible.

TOWN OF FROSTWELL

EXIT 0 – 1 MILE

"How appropriate," Scully murmured, sliding her frozen feet out of her shoes and lifting them up to the heat blowing out from under the dash.

"I guess we’re going to Frostwell," Mulder said. "Then we can find a hotel and get you warmed up." He winked and wiggled his eyebrows, an apology disguised as a joke, disguised as a come-on.

Scully snorted. "Let’s hope."

They drove in silence for some time while Scully took the crumpled map out of her pocket, straightened it out, and started examining it.

"Mulder," she said after a while, frowning as she pored over the map. "There is no Frostwell on this map."

"Mulder?" she repeated, taking her eyes off the map to look at her partner who seemed not to have heard her. Mulder's eyes were fixed on something further down the road. Whatever it was, it appeared to be blocking the entire road. "What is it?" she asked.

"I don't know," he replied, slowing down. They had already reached the outskirts of the small town but had yet to encounter any traffic on the road. Perhaps the blockage ahead was part of the reason.

"It looks like a makeshift barricade of some sort," Scully said as they came closer. She had at first thought to call it a wall, but it would clearly have been too generous a word to describe the odd mixture of old furniture, tires, large stones, and logs of wood that had been piled together to block the road. In fact, the mass seemed to stretch quite far beyond the road on both sides, curving just so that at least in the dark it could easily be assumed it circled the whole town.

"Whatever it is, I don't think it served its purpose," Mulder said, stopping the car. When Scully gave him a questioning look, he pointed towards a large hole in the structure some thirty feet to the left of the road.

"Maybe someone wanted to get out," Scully suggested, wondering if the local youths might have been able to pull a prank of this magnitude in a town as small as this Frostwell clearly was.

"Or maybe some _thing_ wanted to get in," Mulder replied, turning to look at Scully with a knowing expression she knew all too well. Popping a sunflower seed into his mouth, he quickly unstrapped his seat belt and pushed the car door open. He was outside before Scully could tell him to stop.


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh brother,” Scully muttered to herself, but didn’t follow him. Instead she slipped into the driver’s seat and started the car. She’d be damned if she set a foot into the snow again tonight. Scully had no idea who had built this makeshift barrier, or what purpose it served, but she knew they would have to find someone who could tell them more about it.

The town wasn’t large from what she could see. A few thousand inhabitants at most, she guessed.

A handful of street lights were on, but the bad weather had probably driven people into their houses.

Maybe the barrier was to protect the town from floods or other natural disasters caused by the sudden change in weather?

Mulder’s knock on the car window startled her out of her thoughts.

“You were right Scully,” he said and walked around the car. Knocking the snow off his shoes, he climbed into the passenger seat and rubbed his arms. “It looks like something tried to get out, and I think it was successful. The broken wooden planks and some pieces of furniture, I think, are all on the side facing the forest.”

“But what where they trying to lock in? Is that wall surrounding the whole town?” Scully could feel her eyebrows meeting above the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t know; it’s hard to tell in the dark. But I’d say it’s time to pay the good folks of Frostwell a visit, and find out where we actually are. There's a motel over there, and the vacancy sign is on.” He brushed the back of his hand over her cheek. “You're still cold.”

"I’m fine,” Scully replied, but allowed Mulder’s hand to linger on her cheek a little longer than was strictly necessary.

When he let his hand drop, she turned her attention back to the barrier ahead of them.

“Do you think we’ll be able to drive through that hole?” she asked. The hole looked like it might be wide enough for the car, but they would have to get off the road and drive through a lot of snow to even reach the opening. “If we get stuck…”

“We won’t,” Mulder replied, “But if we do, we get out and walk to the motel. It’s so close we could get out and walk right now.”

Scully looked at him for a moment, wondering how exactly they get themselves into these things. Then she sighed and turned the car off again. “Okay, Mulder. Let’s get this over with.”

With Mulder carrying their bags, they set off through the snow to the opening in the barricade. “You know, Scully,” Mulder said as they trudged along. “I’m pretty sure I’ve read about something like this happening before.”

“You’ve read about an entire town ringed with mountains of refuse that didn’t appear on any maps of the area?”

“No, not that part. I mean freak snowstorms in regions that don’t typically get snow and that aren’t tracked by any meteorologist.”

“Go on,” Scully said, as she cautiously stepped over an old tire and around what looked to be an overturned slide from a child’s backyard swing set.

“Well, the one I’m thinking of was reported by a motorist in the early 1970s. He was driving through the Sierra Madre del Sur mountain range in southern Mexico at night, on his way to meet his family in Puerto Angel. He claims that one minute it was a typical warm Mexican night and then suddenly, without warning, he was driving through the middle of a blizzard. Fortunately, the man was from British Columbia, Canada, and quite accustomed to driving through the mountains in winter and was able to get safely to his destination. But when he got there, Scully, he had quite an interesting tale to tell.”

Scully rolled her eyes and considered not biting, but the look of hopeful anticipation on Mulder's face was more than she could resist. Besides, she was a little bit curious. "Go on," she said, as they emerged from the hole in the barricade into a snow-covered field.

"Well, when the storm was at it's peak, the man pulled off the road, much as we did, hoping to wait it out. He had lots of gas, so he kept the car running for the heat and light and pulled out a book. He said he had been sitting in his car, reading, for about fifteen minutes when he saw it."

"Saw what?" Scully asked, intrigued in spite of herself.

Mulder paused, looking from Scully, to the hotel in the distance, and back to the barricade behind them. "Tell you later. C'mon Scully, let's go check in."

Scully rolled her eyes at Mulder behind his back and wrapped her arms around herself. Well, at least the prospect of being in a warm place soon was enticing.

They crossed the field behind the makeshift barrier, heading for the parking lot in front of the motel. The vacancy signed buzzed above their heads.

Not a single footstep had tainted the perfect snow covering the wooden stairs leading up to the motel’s reception. But there was a light on inside.

“Someone seems to be home,” Mulder commented and pushed the door open. A wave of warm air greeted Scully, and she could almost feel her tense body relaxing a little.

“Hello?” Mulder called. “Is somebody here?” Nobody answered.

Scully shrugged at Mulder, and walked up to the desk that had a “MANAGER” sign sitting on it. She rang the desktop bell.

They stood still for a moment, waiting for any sound that would indicate a person approaching, but either the bell had not been heard or they had arrived to an empty motel.

“I don’t think the reception is open,” Mulder said as soon as it had become apparent that nobody was coming, even after Scully had rung the bell for a second time.

“But then why was the door open?” she asked, taking a few steps further inside to look for any signs of life.

“Someone left in a hurry?” Mulder suggested, passing Scully and pushing his way into what appeared to be a small breakfast room. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary there, he turned back and made his way behind the reception desk.

“This is a very small town, Mulder,” Scully pointed out, returning to the lobby after him. “Maybe the people who live here don’t consider it necessary to lock the doors even when they leave the house, or in this case the motel. I know in many rural areas….Mulder, what are you doing?”

Mulder had picked up the telephone and was randomly pushing buttons, the receiver held tightly between his ear and his shoulder. “Calling guest rooms,” he said. “There’s got to be someone in the building, somewhere.”

He listened for a time, until a loud beep indicated the call had automatically rerouted back to reception. Hitting the disconnect button, he repeated the process several more times but with no success.

“Well, so much for that idea. Come on, Scully, let’s find ourselves a room.” Opening a drawer in the desk, he pulled out a key ring replete with numbered keys. “I hope housekeeping had time to clean before everyone disappeared.”

“Mulder, we can’t just help ourselves to a room!” Scully exclaimed.

“Well, do you have a better idea?” Mulder was already halfway down the hall, standing in front of a closed door bearing the number 101. “We need to figure out what’s happened here, but first, I think we need some sleep, some dry clothes, and some daylight.” He fit the key into the knob, and turned, pushing the door open.

Scully, acknowledging the logic of his words, followed him into the room.

The room was shabby and outdated with orange carpeting and bold floral wallpaper. Dust covered every surface, and the air was stale, as if the window hadn't been opened in a very long time. But when she peeked into the bathroom, she found it fully stocked with towels and shampoo.

"I guess they don't get many vacationers in Frostwell," she commented, returning to the main part of the room and shaking out a dusty towel.

Mulder was already lounging on one of two queen size beds.

“Sit down, Scully,” he said. “I think I should finish my story about what happened to the man in Mexico.”

“I somehow knew there was more to the story.” Scully sighed and sat herself down on the other bed.

“Indeed there is,” Mulder said with only a faint smile on his face. “Snow is not uncommon in Mexico. But several indigenous groups tell stories about certain demons able to influence the atmosphere, and to bring on changes in the climate. These are old myths, but they are very much alive: some people even see El Niño as the work of a wind demon.”

“A wind demon,” Scully repeated, raising her eyebrow at him. “Mulder, freak weather can occur anywhere in this world, and El Niño is a phenomenon that has existed for ages. A lack of knowledge about physics and meteorology may promote belief in supernatural forces influencing the weather, but science has unquestionably proven that snow storms happen when different types of air masses in the mid-latitudes interact.”

He only shrugged at her. There was more to the story, she knew, but he was holding back information on purpose.

Scully stood up and walked over to the window. The snowy landscape lay in front of her untouched and unmoving like a painting. Still no sign of life. Some lights were on, even inside houses, but everything was so irritatingly quiet.

“It looks like everyone in this town just…left.” She remarked, more to herself than to him.

“An entire Inuit village at Lake Angikuni in Nunavut, Canada, disappeared overnight in 1930. The fur traders that regularly visited the settlement reported that people had left everything behind. Their dogs, their sleds, their boats, their clothes, food cooking above a fire. They were never seen again.” Mulder said, propping up the pillows underneath him.

Scully threw him a sardonic glance and turned back to the window.

”Inuit are known for their nomadic way of life,” she said flatly without looking at Mulder. “It’s perfectly plausible that the tribe had simply relocated and left behind what they didn’t consider necessary for the journey. The rest is simply embellishment.”

“Be that as it may, there’s nothing nomadic about this town,” Mulder countered. “You cannot believe the entire population of Frostwell simply decided to relocate and leave everything behind.”

Scully sighed, turning to face Mulder again.

“I know I just said it looks like everyone in this town up and left, but there’s no real reason to suppose anyone has gone anywhere,” she replied, retracting her earlier conjecture.

“I believe everyone is simply keeping to their homes after the snow storm. And as for this motel…” Scully paused to take a breath, half expecting Mulder to present a counter argument. He remained silent, however, looking at her expectantly. “As for this motel,” she continued. “It is possible that a crime has been committed and something has happened to the manager, but it’s equally possible that he simply lives in one of the nearby houses and has gone home for the night because there are no customers. Maybe he forgot to lock the door.”

“And the barricade around the town?” Mulder asked, giving her a look that told her he did not share her theory.

“I don’t know, Mulder, but if we talk to the town’s people tomorrow I’m sure there will be some perfectly natural explanation,” Scully replied, knowing she sounded less certain than she would like to have appeared.

Mulder opened his mouth to argue further, but then seemed to think better of it. His hand came up to rub his face, and his fingers raked though his hair. When he finally spoke, his voice was sympathetic, if a little tired. “Okay, Scully. Have it your way. I think I’ll go take a shower.”

He rose from the bed, but instead of grabbing his bag and going directly into the small bathroom, he detoured around her bed and came to stand behind her at the window. His hands rose to lightly grasp her elbows, and he leaned in close, his lips a fraction of an inch from her ear.

Her stomach flipped over.

“Don’t think it’s escaped me that you’re in here with me instead of in a room of your own, Scully,” he said lowly. “I know this whole thing has frightened you more than you’re letting on.”

She could argue. She should argue. But she was just so exhausted, and confused, and yes, more than a little scared, so instead she sagged against him and let him wrap his arms around her midsection.

They stood there together for long minutes, silently studying the dark little town and the undisturbed snow surrounding it, their co-mingled breath fogging the window in front of them.

She wasn't completely sure, but she thought she felt him press a kiss to her hair before he stepped away and went into the bathroom.

She didn't move from the window until after she heard the shower turn on.


	4. Chapter 4

It took a few minutes for her pulse to return to normal again. Why was it that his simplest touch could send her into a state like this?

Had he really kissed her? He had to be feeling concerned about her, and maybe a little guilty for dragging her into another strange, potentially dangerous situation. Even though they both knew she had made a habit out of following him pretty much anywhere.

Scully signed. These thoughts were not healthy, she knew.

Just as she reached up to draw the blinds of their room shut, she saw a black shadow darting across the parking lot from the corner of her eye. Startled, she looked again.

An animal maybe? A dog?

It was gone.

She couldn’t even tell if there were tracks in the snow – had it been a trick of her tired mind? Surely, it must have been. Still, she could feel her skin prickle.

It was so tempting to call his name, but it had been a long day for him, too, so she didn’t want to disturb him. Instead, she pulled the blinds shut and placed her gun on the nightstand.

After a moment of consideration, she decided  to change into her pyjamas and lie down on the other bed after dusting it off as best she could.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, he wore a clean t-shirt and sweatpants. Scully pressed her lips together and looked at the ceiling, but not without seeing the small smile on his face.

Neither of them said anything as Mulder stepped across the room and settled  back on his  bed. For a brief moment Scully wondered  if she should have insisted on a separate room after all, but her uncertainty lasted only as long as the silence continued.

They had not remained still for long when she began to grow aware of a faint thumping sound that appeared to be coming from somewhere above them. One look in Mulder’s direction told her that he had heard the same.

Placing a finger over his lips he indicated they should keep quiet, and without saying a word Scully reached for her gun on the nightstand while Mulder got up and began to pull his trousers back on.

“Do you think there could be someone upstairs?” Scully whispered while she, too, scrambled to put more clothes on.

“Possibly,” Mulder replied in the same hushed tone. “Or maybe the roof, or an attic. It’s too distant to be directly above us.”

“Maybe it’s the manager?” Scully suggested hopefully, but without loosening her grip of the gun.

“Maybe…” Mulder submitted under his breath as they stepped out of their room. “Or at least what's left of him.”

“Mulder!” Scully hissed, smacking her partner on the arm. “That’s not funny!”

“Just trying to lighten the mood, Scully,” he replied, looking back towards the lobby, before turning in the other direction. “Come on, I bet there’s a back staircase down this way.”

 The hallway as narrow and only dimly lit ;  the green carpet swallowed the sound of their steps.

There was a staircase at the other end of it, leading to the floor above. Mulder gave Scully an encouraging nod and took the lead.

Scully tried to switch her flashlight on. It only flickered, then shut off completely. “Damn it.” She had forgotten the battery had drained back in that cave.

Mulder reached back and grabbed her hand. “Stay close , ” he said as he pulled her up the stairs.

The stairs creaked under their feet. The sound seemed strangely loud in the otherwise silent building. Upstairs, the air was stale and dusty.

“Looks like the manager lives and works up here , ” Mulder remarked, pointing at a glass door leading to what looked like a small office. “He doesn’t seem to believe in opening a window every once in a while.”

Scully nodded, then something caught her eye.

“Mulder!” she whispered. He followed her gaze to the other end of the hallway. A thin strip of light came from under the door there. And a shadow passed behind it.

He could feel her hand squeezing his harder.

”FBI ,"   Mulder shouted, pointing his gun towards the closed door. Scully did  the same, releasing her partner’s hand to grasp her gun with both hands.

“Identify yourself,” she ordered. When there was no immediate response she added in the same authoritative voice ,  “Open the door slowly and step out with your hands where we can see them.”

Still nothing happened.

Mulder had just begun to inch closer to the end of the hall when the shadow they had seen earlier appeared again, blocking the strip of light under the door.

Almost simultaneously the knob on the door began to turn slowly.

“Come out with your hands where we can see them,” Mulder repeated Scully’s instruction, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

Scully, who had followed Mulder, had just reached his side when the door opened, revealing a man who was leaning heavily on the door frame for support, holding up his right hand.

The other arm was missing entirely.

“Who the hell are you?” the man demanded, wincing as he tried to straighten up. “What are you doing in my hotel?”

“Are you all right, sir?” Scully asked, shoving her gun in the back of her pants and taking a step towards him.

“Fine, fine,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “Or at least, no worse than usual. FBI, you said?”

“Yes sir,” Mulder said, holding up his badge for the man to read. “My name is Fox Mulder. This is my partner Dana Scully.” He lowered his gun, but his arm remained tense and ready.

Scully held up her badge as well. “We’re sorry to disturb you, sir. We got caught in some weather, and thought we would check in to your hotel for the night. The door was unlocked, but there was no one around. We kind of, um, helped ourselves to a room. We’ll pay you, of course.”

The man stared at her for a moment, then leaned heavily against the door jamb again, colour draining from his face. “Weather, you say?”

“Yeah,” Mulder said. “Freak snowstorm. Hey, do you need to sit down?”

“I think I’d better. And you’re going to want to too.”

Mulder threw Scully a glance, then followed the man into the room to sit down across from him on an orange sofa. The furniture seemed old, but everything was clean enough. Scully wondered if the man had a wife, or someone else to help him in the house.

The TV was on, but the sound was down.

She sat down next to her partner, folding her hands.

“Mr…” Mulder began, fishing for the man’s name.

“Ben. Ben Fraser ," h e answered and reached for his tea cup with shaky fingers.

“Mr. Fraser. My  partner and I, we seem to have lost our way on the highway when the storm set in. Could you tell us where we are exactly?”

“In Frostwell, of course ," t he man replied, and slowly stood up again, leaving the cup on the coffee table. “This isn’t good. This really isn’t good.  You say my door was unlocked? ” He walked over to his window and opened the blinds. The streetlights caused the snowy landscape to glow eerily.

"Yes, sir, it was," Mulder replied.

“ Damned fool, falling asleep like that, ” Ben muttered, more to himself than to Mulder and Scully. “It 's starting again . Do you know how long it took for the storm to calm down again?”

Scully turned to Mulder. She had mostly been asleep while he had driven their car.

“It went on for an hour or so, ” Mulder replied, but she could tell that his answer was an estimate at best.

“It calmed down a little over an hour ago , ” Scully continued after taking a look at her watch.

“I  was  asleep with the TV on, ” Ben explained, pointing at the mute screen. “I didn’t even notice that it started again.”

“That what started again Mr. Fraser?” Scully asked, “Storm season?”

Slowly, he shook his head. “Not just that.”

”What do you mean?” Scully asked. She glanced at Mulder to gauge his reaction but his attention was on Ben.

The man took a deep breath, fixing his eyes on Scully. “I suppose you saw the wall surrounding our little town,” he said slowly. “Or what’s left of it anyway.”

Scully nodded. “Yes, we saw a barricade of sorts,” she replied. “We wondered what the purpose of it might be.”

“Purpose?” Ben let out a mirthless laugh. “A last resort, I suppose. A hopeless resort,” he added ruefully. “I doubt any of us really believed it would keep the thing out.”

“The thing, sir?” Scully asked, wondering if this man had spent too much time alone. “Are there wild animals in this area?”

“Animals?” Ben repeated. “No. Not anymore. Those that haven’t been killed have fled a long time ago.”

Mulder and Scully exchanged uneasy glances.

_Me or you_ , his eyes questioned. 

_Me_ , she replied silently, with a quirk of her lip.

Turning back to Ben, she asked, “What do you mean? What’s killing the animals, Mr. Fraser?”

“Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?” He walked back to his chair and sat, his lone hand rubbing the shoulder above his missing arm. “It’s the one I’ve been asking myself for almost eight years now. I know what it seems like, but it can’t be. It  _can’t_  be.” His last sentence was spoken quietly but insistently, and more to himself than to the two FBI agent. He dropped his hand to his lap, his eyes distant.

“What can’t it be, sir?” Mulder asked, ignoring Scully’s cautioning glare. 

“Huh?” Ben looked up again, seemingly surprised to find them on his sofa. “Oh, it’s a bear. Just a big old polar bear, gone got himself lost down here somehow.”

The old man stood, wincing, and walked the couple of steps to the door. “Now if you two will excuse me, I think I need to get some shut-eye. You’re welcome to the room; I’ll be down at the desk first thing in the morning to take your payment, and then you can be on your way.”

Mulder opened his mouth to speak again, but Scully silenced him with a sharp elbow to the ribs.

“Thank you, Mr. Fraser. We’re sorry if we’ve caused you any inconvenience. Come on, Mulder, bed time.” She stood and grabbed Mulder’s hand, pulling him up from the sofa.

 Mulder, to her surprise, stayed silent, just nodding to Ben has he passed him on the way out of the room.


	5. Chapter 5

"A polar bear?" he hissed into her ear as they made their way back into their room. "A polar bear terrorizing a small town in Southern California and erasing parts of the local fauna entirely? And no one calls animal control?" The sarcasm in his voice bordered on annoyance.

"Most people don’t lie very well when under pressure," Scully remarked dryly as she shut the door behind them, only now letting go of his hand.

"Good old Ben sure seems to belong to that group."

She crossed her hands in front of her chest, staring into space. "Mulder, he said the barricade was to keep something from entering the town, but the hole we came through was obviously caused by something or someone who managed to get out."

Mulder sank down on the bed he had previously sat on. "So maybe something else entirely escaped the local zoo," he said, rubbing his eyes.

Scully sighed, and climbed into bed as well. She watched as he fussed with his sheets and pillows. Once he had settled himself, she reached to turn off the bedside lamp, the only source of light left in their room, but stopped herself.

"Mulder…" she began, as the memory of the dark shadow she had seen moving in the parking lot came to her mind again. 

"Hm?" he asked. His eyes looked almost green in this light.

"Nothing, nevermind, good night," she said, and turned the lamp off.

Scully wasn’t sure how long she had slept, but when she opened her eyes, everywhere was still pitch dark. She could hear quiet snoring coming from Mulder’s side of the room, the calming rhythm of his breaths breaking the otherwise perfect silence, but as Scully slowly sat up, she could not shake the feeling that something else had woken her up.

 _It was probably just a dream_ , she told herself even as her hand touched the handle of her gun on the nightstand, making sure it was where she had left it.

The shadow in the parking lot came to her mind once more and, trying to move as quietly as possible so as not to wake her partner, Scully got up and tiptoed her way to the window.

There was nothing in the parking lot, apart from a couple of cars covered in so much snow that it seemed unlikely anyone had driven them recently. A little bit further away a streetlight - one of the few that seemed to be lit - kept flickering on and off as if trying to last one more night before giving out like its companions.

Against the light Scully could see that it was snowing.

" _It has started again._ " Scully recalled Ben’s words as she watched the snowflakes fall down and she wondered again what he had meant.

She was still lost in her thoughts when the streetlight outside flickered out again, this time with a sense of finality. Almost simultaneously, a sudden gust of wind rattled the window in front of Scully and she shuddered, feeling suddenly colder than she had since they had entered the motel. She could not see anything amiss, but still something felt not right.

She needed to know what that was.

Detouring past her nightstand, she picked up her gun, then gathered her coat and shoes from the closet and, easing open the deadbolt, slipped from the room. Pausing in the hall to don her outerwear, she walked toward the lobby. Perhaps if she just poked her head out the front door, the sight of undisturbed snow as far as the eye could see would reassure her enough to allow her to sleep.

The lobby was just as deserted now as it had been when she and Mulder arrived. A couple of dim recessed lights in the ceiling above the front desk bathed the area in a sickly yellow glow. As far as she could tell from her brief look earlier, nothing was out of place. The drawer in which Mulder had found the key to their room was still slightly ajar.

Turning, she entered the small breakfast room. More recessed lighting partially illuminated the counter holding coffeemakers and empty baskets that should contain pastries and teabags and such. A thick layer of dust advised her not to expect to be fed in the morning.

Leaving the room, she crossed the lobby to the door which led to the parking lot. The recessed lighting in this area was augmented by a large white and red Exit sign, the effect of which was that she could only see her reflection in the glass of the windows and not the parking lot beyond.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, she pushed through the first door, crossed the small vestibule, the then pushed through the second, outer door. The cold wind that greeted her stole her breath.

It seemed even colder than before. If temperatures were to stay this low throughout the night or even the next day, no snowmelt could be expected. Scully pulled her coat tighter around herself. Something about the entire situation felt so unnatural.

She took a few cautious steps out on the wooden patio, careful not to fall. A sprained ankle was the last thing she needed.

The traces Mulder and she had left in the snow, leading up from the parking lot all the way to the entrance door, were still clearly visible. She could even make out the imprint her pumps had left.

Scanning the snow for any clues as to what it was that caused her this sense of unease, Scully climbed down the stairs. The broken street lamp left an eerie dark gap in the faltering chain of orange lights still lining the road.

Nothing stirred. The thought of knocking on someone's door occurred to her, but she discarded that thought quickly. Who knew how people in a barricaded town would react to someone knocking on their door in the middle of the night, carrying a gun.

That reminded her of the fact that she still had no idea what time it was. She reached for her wrist, even though she knew she had left her watch on her nightstand, next to her cell phone.

A cold wind brushed over her face, making her shudder. It had been stupid to come out here, all by herself.

Scully turned to walk back into the motel, when a small noise coming from behind a completely snow covered car caused her to freeze.

"Who’s there?" she asked, but her voice came out as little more than a hoarse whisper. It was almost as if some part of her instinct was telling her not to make any noise. Her hands trembled from the cold as she pointed her gun towards the car, but nothing or no-one appeared from behind it. It had probably been just a stray animal.

Careful not to let the parking lot out of her sight, Scully began slowly retracing her steps back towards the entrance door. She reminded herself that she was not properly dressed to venture across the snow covered lot, and even if she was, there was probably nothing to investigate. It was best to go inside and wait for the morning.

Besides, she would never hear the end of it if Mulder found out about her midnight wild goose chase.

Shaking her head at herself, Scully threw one more glance towards the car where she had thought something had moved, but everything was now as still as it was quiet. Even the snowing had ended again, although the freezing cold remained. 

"Spooky," she muttered to herself with a hint of self-irony. Then, resolutely turning her back on the parking lot, she turned around, took the few remaining steps up the stairs, across the wooden patio and into the comparative warmth of the motel.

Inside, she ran almost head-first into Ben, who stood in the middle of the entrance hall with a double barreled shotgun in his remaining hand.

For a moment, they stared at each other in silence. Then Ben strode past Scully to slam the door shut, turning the key in the lock.

"What in devil's name do you think you're doing?" he then asked, his voice as harsh as the expression on his face.

She took a step backward, the look of fury on Ben’s face enough to make her wish she had never ventured from the room.

"I was just getting a breath of air. I’ve got a bit of a headache," she said by way of explanation, a lie that was well on its way to becoming the truth.

"Did you not hear a damned word I said earlier?" he demanded, jerking the stump of his upper arm in her direction. "Do you want this to happen to you, damned fool woman?"

"The, ah, polar bear? It did that to you?" she asked, ignoring the slur on her intelligence.

"Yes," he spit, his eyes still full of anger. "That monster took my arm, along with the lives of a lot of good people."

He paused, as a war was fought across his expressive features, his mouth twisting and his eyes darting from Scully to the door and back. Then, visibly deflating, he set his shotgun on the floor leaning against his legs, and lifted his single hand to scrub across his face before he spoke again.

"Agent Scully, I apologize for how I’ve spoken to you. I think we both should go back to our beds now, but if you and your partner could spare me some time in the morning, I have a story I’d like to tell you."

Scully slowly nodded, swallowing the sarcastic reply she felt on her tongue. "My partner and I are looking forward to hearing it," she answered instead, but not without making it felt that it was the truth she wanted to hear from him.

Ben gave her a long searching look, but then let his shoulders drop. Suddenly, he looked like a tired old man.

"Good night agent Scully," he said, "Lock your door, and close the curtains, too. Try to get some sleep. Staring out of windows will only expose you to those who have no right to look in."

Raising an eyebrow at that comment, Scully walked down the hallway to their room.

She found Mulder in the same place she had left him, snoring quietly in his sleep, his long limbs spread out on the bed. Scully felt the corners of her mouth twitch. At least he was getting a bit of rest.

She tried not to stand too close to the window when making sure the curtains were closed properly.

Placing her gun on the nightstand next to her, she pulled the sheets over her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t wait for the sun to rise.


	6. Chapter 6

The next time Scully opened her eyes, it was to bright sunlight streaming through the curtains, and for a moment she was not sure where she was. It was the sound of Mulder’s voice that brought everything back in a flash: the snow, the motel, the shadow in the parking lot, and Ben with his one arm and big shotgun.

“Good morning agent Scully,” her partner greeted her with mock formality. Glancing at Scully's undoubtedly still sleepy face and messy hair, he smiled at her as he moved over to the window. “I guess you really were tired, huh?”

“How long have you been awake?” Scully asked, hoping to avoid addressing the reason of her tiredness.

“Long enough to get dressed, go outside, and not find any people outdoors shoveling the fresh snow.“ Mulder quipped, pulling the curtains slightly apart and peering out of the window. “Don’t you find that odd?” he asked, turning back to Scully.

“That you would go outside first thing in the morning to look for evidence to support whatever theory you have? Not really,” she replied dryly.

Mulder acknowledged her retort with a wry grin, but Scully knew he was still waiting for her actual response. 

“Yes, Mulder, I do find it odd,” she replied at last, sitting up in her bed. “Something is not right in this town, and we should find out what it is, but if we are dealing with an animal or perhaps even a homicidal maniac who has killed nearly the entire population of this town, we might have to request back-up before we proceed.” Even as she spoke, Scully knew perfectly well that there would be no waiting for back up.

Mulder was silent for a moment. Then he glanced at Scully again. "So you think it is a person?" he asked.

"I am saying that might be one logical explanation," Scully replied. "Even you can't believe that it would be a polar bear."

"No, not a polar bear," Mulder replied, but the hint of a smile on his lips made it clear to Scully that he had another theory.

This was usually the point where she would give in to his enthusiasm and let him explain his off-the-wall supposition, all the while doing her best to poke holes in it. But this time, she needed a change of subject to give herself time to figure out how to broach the topic of her late night encounter with Ben.

“I’m starving,” she announced, averting her eyes. “I think I saw a vending machine in the hall, could you maybe…” She grimaced, and gestured toward the door.

His eyes narrowed slightly until an opportune stomach growl convinced him of her sincerity. Smirking, he left after pulling a handful of change from his pocket.

As soon as the door closed behind him, Scully rose from the bed and went to the bathroom to change her clothes, considering how best to tell her partner they had an appointment with a possibly unstable, one-armed man that morning.

She had just finished buttoning her blouse when a loud rapping filled the room.

“Alright, Mulder,” she shouted, going to open the door. “I’m coming!”

Picking up the black blazer she had laid out on the bed, she walked over to the door. Just as she was about to turn the handle, she paused. This was odd. Why would Mulder, or anyone, rattle on the door like that?

She could feel goose bumps appear on her arms. 

Again, a rapping noise, louder than before. And it was coming from the window. 

Scully turned around.

Mulder had opened the curtains this morning after getting out of bed. The bright morning sunlight was reflected by the snow outside, causing her to briefly squeeze her eyes shut. Was someone outside, trying to get in`?

She walked over to the window, but hesitated before opening it. Ben’s warning still rang in her head, so she retrieved her gun from the nightstand first.

Scully pushed the window open. 

“Hello?” she called, “Is someone there?” She poked her head outside, looking around.

As expected, she was only greeted by cold air. She could see the footsteps she had left in the snow last night, and what she assumed where Ben’s. 

Then, something caught her eye. She almost hit her head on the window when Mulder walked back into their room, wielding a bunch of chocolate bars.

“You don’t mind that these feel a bit frozen, do you?” he asked, and tore a bar open with his teeth. “What are you doing with your head in the cold, Scully?”

Scully pulled herself back in, letting the curtains fall closed. They billowed slightly in front of the still open window

“I thought I heard something,” she said, taking one of the chocolate bars Mulder was offering. It felt cold in her hand.

“Have the good people of Frostwell finally come out of their hiding holes?” Mulder asked, joining Scully at the window and parting the curtains again.

“No.” Scully shook her head. “But something moved out there. Mulder.”  As if to prove her point, the banging sound came again, louder now that the window was open.

Mulder took her by the arm and moved her back out of the way so he could stick his own head outside. Leaning with his hands on the sill, he craned his neck, peering left and right. When he pulled his head back in, he was smiling. "Look again, Scully. Off to the right."

She complied, leaning as far out the window as she could. The noise came again and this time she was looking in the right direction to catch the motion of a loose storm door of an outbuilding opening and then slamming shut in the wind.

She pulled her head back in and shut the window without comment. 

"Do you want me to shoot it?" Mulder asked.

She didn't have to speak; a roll of her eyes conveyed her thoughts perfectly.  _Very funny, Mulder._

He got the message and poked her lightly in the side, grinning in cheerful reassurance. 

But of course, her own paranoia aside, there was still something else he needed to know. She paused for a moment, trying to decide how much to tell her partner. He looked at her expectantly.

 “Last night, before we went to sleep, I was looking out of this window and I thought I saw a shadow moving in the parking lot,” she began. Mulder raised his eyebrow but said nothing. She knew he was waiting for her to finish. “I didn’t say anything at the time because I wasn’t sure I had actually seen anything more than a stray animal scurrying across the parking lot. I’m still not convinced that it was anything else, but I thought you should know.”

 “Is that all?” Mulder asked. He tapped his chocolate bar against the window-sill a couple of times, producing a knocking sound that made it clear it was more than a bit frozen.  

 “No, there’s more,” Scully replied, turning her eyes from the chocolate bar back to her partner. She told Mulder briefly what had happened during the night and described to him her meeting with Ben in the lobby. 

“You shouldn’t have gone by yourself,” he said as soon as she had finished. Putting the chocolate bar in his pocket, he looked Scully in the eye, his expression serious. “Why did you?”

Why had she? It was a fair question, and not one she really has a good answer for. Scully slowly unwrapped her chocolate bar and took a careful nibble, letting the candy melt in her mouth before chewing and swallowing.

“You were asleep,” she said finally. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”

Mulder smiled, but shook his head. “Try again.” He pulled his chocolate bar out from his pocket and bit off a corner with a loud snap. "Ow," he said, hand flying up to rub his jaw.

She rolled her eyes. “Okay, you’re right. It was stupid to leave the room alone and I’m sorry. I was nervous, and exhausted, and not thinking clearly, and I just wanted to take a look around outside to reassure myself that there were no…polar bears…lurking in the parking lot.”

Mulder snorted at her mention of bears, and she couldn’t stop her lips from twisting into an answering smirk. 

“Anyway,” she continued. “It won’t happen again. But at least one good thing came out of it. Ben is ready to talk to us. He said he would tell us this morning what is really going on in Frostwell.”

 “He sure knows how to build a story,” Mulder commented, taking another bite of chocolate. “But this time, he better come up with something more plausible than a polar bear running wild in Southern California.”

“More plausible,” Scully repeated, wondering what Mulder would regard a more logical explanation. “I don’t believe the polar bear story either, but wild animals, which may or may not be indigenous to this region, could very well be the culprit. He also suggested to me that he lost his arm when he came face to face with…some creature.”

Mulder winked at her. “Well, something tells me this will be an exciting day.”

“Well, let’s find Ben. And hopefully some coffee,” she said and got up.

Before opening the door, Mulder turned to look at her. “Scully, just…next time you decide to go bear-hunting, take me with you, ok?” His voice was calm, but serious. Like it always was when he showed concern for her.

She smiled almost unnoticeably.

Down the hallway, they met Ben in the lobby, still clad in the same coat as last night. His shoutgun leaned against the counter right next to him. “Oh good, you're up," he greeted them. “I expect you got a good night’s sleep?”

“Thank you,” Mulder replied. “And we expect that you tell us what is really happening in this town.”

Ben scoffed, almost in defeat.

“It is strange talking to people from the government about this,” he remarked, scratching his head. “I suppose…when you told me last night that you got lost in the weather…I assume you couldn’t find Frostwell on your map, either.”

Scully glanced at Mulder. Then she nodded. “That’s right,” she said. “Do you know why?”

Ben reached into his pocket and pulled out a map of his own, handing it to Scully. “Perhaps you can find it on this one,” he said.

Scully unfolded the map so that Mulder could see it as well. Her eyes found Frostwell almost instantly. It had been circled on the map with a red marker.

She looked at Ben, puzzled. “Is this a more recent map?” she asked.

“I think this one is much older, Scully,” Mulder interjected before Ben could respond. He was pointing at a date in the bottom corner of the map. The year marked there was 1989.

“Your partner is right, Miss Scully,” Ben said, taking the map back. “According to the government we haven’t existed since 1991.”


	7. Chapter 7

Scully cut her eyes to Mulder, who just raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” she asked, turning back to Ben. “Did the town unincorporate?”

Ben snorted humourlessly. “Something like that.” He stuffed the map back in his pocket and picked up his rifle. “Come on,” he said, walking toward the door.

Mulder started to follow, but Scully put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Mr. Fraser, where are you going?”

Ben stopped and turned around to face them. “You wanted to know what happened to Frostwell, didn’t you? Can’t show you from in here.” He turned back around, and without waiting to see if they followed, shouldered through the doors, stepped out onto the patio, and then disappeared from view.

“You have your gun?” Mulder asked quietly.

At her nod, the two of them followed Ben out the door. The first thing Scully noticed was the dramatic increase in temperature. The snow was already melting, leaving slushy puddles dotting the patio, and water streaming steadily out of the downspout coming from the roof.

The second thing she noticed was the eerie silence blanketing the town, even more noticeable now than it had been the previous night, the wind having quieted into a light breeze.

"Where did he go?" she asked, shielding her eyes from the bright sun.

"That way," Mulder said, pointing at a trail of sloppy footprints leading from the patio to the parking lot, and around the corner of the building.

“It’s starting to feel a lot more like California,” Scully remarked as she stepped into the slushy snow, thankful for having decided on wearing closed boots, but almost wishing she could take her jacket off.

Mulder nodded, his eyes scanning the horizon. “This is by no means a large town, Scully,” he remarked quietly. “But not so insignificant that they could erase it completely from a local map, right?”

They caught up with Ben by a picket fence on the edge of a steep hill, marking the border of his property. He was leaning onto his gun, as if the short walk had exhausted him. His gaze was fixed at something at the bottom of the hill.

“Mr. Fraser?” Mulder called, and Scully could hear both concern and impatience in his voice.

The other man didn’t turn around.

“Do you have any idea how easy it is to make a town disappear? No magic required,” he replied instead, “Out here in these hills, with almost no one else nearby? You reprint a few maps, and let some road signs disappear. Gradually you resettle those who have relations in other towns and states under whatever pretense you can come up with, and make sure that the few staying behind are being supplied with food and everything else they might need, but let them fend for themselves.”

Mulder and Scully exchanged a glance, but neither of them could think of an answer to fill the silence after Ben’s speech.

He seemed to notice this, and continued. “You'll find the reason they decided to let Frostwell ‘disappear’ down there,” he said, pointing his gun at a distant spot, where the snow-covered thicket met the forest limit.

”What’s over there?” Scully asked. She was unable to discern anything that looked in any way out of the ordinary.

“I’ll take you there,” Ben said, starting to limp his way towards the spot he had pointed out. He looked exhausted, and Scully wondered if he might be in need of some medical attention. If the town was as abandoned as it appeared to be, there was likely no health care center in operation, if there ever had been.

“Mr. Fraser,” she began. “Has any physician looked at your leg recently? I’m a medical doctor and….”

“It’s fine,” Ben cut in gruffly. “It’s an old injury,” he added, adjusting his tone. “But thank you, Miss Scully.”

They continued forward in silence until they reached the barricade that surrounded the town. In this spot, too, there seemed to be a gap, but it looked different from the one they had passed through the night before.

“This hole has been made from the outside,” Mulder whispered to Scully as they walked through the gap.

“That’s not the only difference,” she replied under her breath. Whoever or whatever had come through, had not removed the objects that formed the wall. It had smashed its way through them.

Mulder nodded meaningfully, eyebrows raised as he offered his arm to assist her over the wreckage. Gratefully, Scully grasped the crook of his elbow and carefully picked her way over splintered furniture and shredded tires.

“Mulder,” she said under her breath when they were through the worst of it. “Mr. Fraser.”

Mulder winced and turned back around. “Need a hand, sir?” he asked the older man, who was still leaning against his rifle on the other side of the barricade.

Ben gave a short bark of laughter. “I think I’ll stay over here, thanks, and I’d advise the two of you do the same.”

“Why is that, Mr. Fraser?” Scully asked.

“Take a look around, young lady. Snow’s melting.”

“Yes, the weather is improving,” she replied, “but I’m not sure how that relates…”

“Agent Scully, the weather is improving because it’s sleeping. You and your partner there go traipsing off into the woods, you might wake it up.”

“ _It_ is asleep,” Scully repeated, putting emphasis on the first word. She gave Mulder’s arm a discreet squeeze.

“By _it_ …do you mean the polar bear, Mr. Fraser?” Mulder asked, clearly fishing for more information.

The older man let out another dry cough that was supposed to sound like laughter. “I think we all know that there is no such thing as a polar bear, or any other kind of animal in these woods.” Ben shook his head. “No, no, it is something far worse. And it’s the reason why they made us ‘disappear’.”

“So, what else is going on here?” Mulder asked. “I think we should know, don’t you agree?”

Ben smiled, and looked at the forest line again. “We believe that it has always lived in these forests, though we never even knew of its existence. It was asleep, I think. Then something happened that must have woken it up. And the snow started. Soon after, the government showed up.”

Scully glanced at Mulder, wondering what he was making of what Ben was saying. Mulder simply met her eyes, indicating with a subtle raise of his eyebrows that she should ask the next question.

Scully certainly had one ready: “Mr. Fraser, what exactly do you mean by ‘ _it_ ’?” she asked, hoping to finally get a real answer instead of the vague insinuations he had been dropping since their first meeting.

Ben’s eyes turned to Scully, but he remained silent for a moment, looking first at her and then at Mulder, as if making a decision. Finally he cleared his throat and sat down on an old, wooden desk that stood among the rubble of the barricade.

“Well that’s the thing,” he said slowly. “We know more or less what it does, but nobody's gotten close enough and stayed alive to tell the what and the how.”

“The abominable snowman?” Mulder asked.

Ben’s laugh was hollow and mirthless.

“You have watched too much television, son,” he replied. “But I suppose you could call it that.”

“The abominable snowman?” Scully repeated, looking from her partner, to Ben, and back again. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“This look like a joke to you?” Ben asked, once again jerking the stump of his arm in her direction.

"It did that to you?" Mulder asked, shooting Scully a warning glance. Covering her mouth with her hand, she walked a couple of feet away, coming to lean against the shell of an old Ford sedan.

Ben scowled and stared off into the woods. “It was my watch, 3:00 a.m., or thereabouts. You wouldn't think a man could sleep under those circumstances, but it had been days since I'd had any rest. I should never have sat down. It took me from behind as I was dozing, dragged me off. But I didn’t see nothing. Cave was dark as a nightmare.”

Mulder and Scully traded glances. “Did you say cave?” Scully asked. “Mulder and I ran across a cave in the woods just off the highway…”

“With an iron chain driven into the ground and a broken collar,” Ben finished. “That’s the one. Took twelve men and enough tranq to down a herd of elephants to get it chained up in the there. Held it for less than a day. And none of rest of the twelve lived to tell about it."

“How did you get away?" Scully asked, drawn into the story in spite of her scepticism.

"Who says I did?"


	8. Chapter 8

"Excuse me?" Mulder replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm just kidding Mr. Mulder," Ben hacked up another laugh. "We don’t get many visitors here, you see."

"Yeah, I am starting to see why," Scully muttered under her breath.

"Mine was a lucky escape I guess. It behaves a bit like a shark, this thing. Bites a bit off, then moves on," Ben explained, more seriously this time. "It was so dark that night…and frankly, I was too afraid to look."

"Mr. Fraser, this abominable snow creature…or whatever you call it…how do you keep it at bay, when it's roaming the woods freely?" Scully asked. "And do you know what caused it to produce a snow storm last night?" She watched Mulder smirk from the corner of her eye. He knew how doubtful she was about this whole story.

"Oh, we still haven't figured out what exactly makes it do the things it does," Ben answered. "But, as said, it pretty much killed or drove away the entire animal population in these forests. You can't even hear a bird sing, not even on the nicest of days. Maybe it's getting hungry again."

"Hungry?" Scully perked up. "So it is indeed an animal we are talking about?"

"Oh, no, Miss Scully, that's not what I'm saying," Ben said. "But I'm not planning to be on its breakfast menu either. It's already gotten enough of me."

With that, the older man turned around and left them standing by the fence.

"So." Mulder said, after Ben was out of earshot. "What do you make of all this?"

"I don't know, Mulder," she replied. "Obviously something very serious has happened here, but a snowman?" Her voice was dripping with skepticism. "And wasn't he supposed to show us something?" she added under her breath, looking at Ben's retreating back.

"If not a snowman, then what?" Mulder kept pushing her, ignoring her last remark. Scully could tell he certainly had swallowed Ben's bait. In fact, he had probably been chewing on it even before hearing Ben's version of the events.

"Has it occurred to you that Mr. Fraser might be suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder?" she suggested. "I have read of cases where people suffering from PTSD have begun to develop delusional beliefs and experience paranoia."

"I suppose it's possible," Mulder replied, picking up a stick from the ground and poking the melting snow with it. "But then what was the event that caused it? And what are the chances that the whole town experienced a simultaneous group psychosis that made them believe they needed to defend themselves against some unknown monster by building this barricade?" He poked an old tire lying on the ground.

"This is a small town. A particularly violent and sadistic mass murderer could cause a spreading panic that might, in extreme cases, lead to something like this," Scully replied, indicating the wall that surronded them. She knew she was grasping at straws with her theory, but even so, it had to be more likely than an ancient monster having suddenly woken up from its long sleep to eat half the population of an ordinary town.

"Maybe," Mulder conceded. "But I need to call Skinner."

Scully raised an eyebrow at the apparent non-sequitur. "Why?"

"Remember the story I told you last night? About the man in Mexico?" he asked, dropping his stick and holding out a hand to help her back over the remains of the ruined barricade.

She knew there had been more to that story that he hadn’t shared with her. "Yes. Vaguely," she said cautiously, ignoring Mulder's hand and taking a few careful steps back in the direction they came.

"I think I have a file on it. There’s got to be a functional fax machine somewhere in this town. I need Skinner to fax me the file."

"Why?" she asked. "What's in it?" Nudging a wooden pallet with her foot, she tested its stability before stepping on it. Halfway across, the pallet tilted alarmingly to the left, throwing her off balance. She threw her arms in the air to compensate, wobbling precariously.

"Whoa, Scully!" Mulder called. "I’ve got you." He was at her side in an instant, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her bodily off the pallet.

"Thanks," she said, releasing her grip on his upper arms when her feet were back on solid, if slightly slushy, ground.

"Anytime." He grinned down at her, eyes shining in amusement. "Want me to carry you over the rest of the debris?"

"Ah, no, that's okay. I think I can manage."

He held her gaze for a moment longer before finally shrugging and lifting his hands from her hips. "Did you see where Ben went?" he asked.

Scully turned to look back at the motel, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "Back inside, I assume," she replied without much considering her answer. Then, she paused. "I mean…where else would he go?"

"Probably true," Mulder agreed. She could tell from the sound of his voice that he was just as uncertain about what was going on in this town as her, no matter how believable he found that snowman story. But something else was on her mind.

"Mulder, don't you think that people would slowly start coming out of their houses now?" she wondered, gesturing at the quiet houses located behind motel. "I mean, it is almost noon, and we haven't seen or heard anyone other than Ben Fraser!"

Mulder nodded. "I wouldn't call this town highly populated, but according to Ben's story, there have to be other inhabitants left. The houses are well maintained. Well, some of them at least."

"Look, why don't you go and see if there is a fax machine in the motel. Contact Skinner, see if you can get your hands on that file. And see if he can get us more information on this lovely place," Scully raised her eyebrows. "I'll go and knock on a few doors, maybe I'll get to know the neighborhood a little better."

He gave her a searching look, considering her proposal for a second. "Alright. You got your gun and phone?" he asked again, even if he knew fully well that she did.

Scully nodded at him, and he briefly touched her arm. "Be careful, Scully. I'll call you once I have news."

Scully began walking down what appeared to be the main street of the town, even as it was now completely deserted.

"Where is everybody?" she muttered to herself as she walked, finally arriving on a doorstep that looked somewhat well kept, with curtains in the windows. She decided it was as good a place as any to start.

Scully rang the doorbell and then took a few steps back to see if she could see anything through the windows. Nothing seemed to be moving.

She was about to ring again when a female voice coming from somewhere further away startled her:

"You'll not find anyone there," the voice said, but when Scully looked around, she could not immediately see where it was coming from.

"You'd do well to get back inside youself, young lady," the same voice continued. "Or better yet, leave the town. Strangers never last long here."

Now Scully could see that a door in a nearby house had been cracked open and an elderly lady was peeking through it. She reached for her badge.

"Agent Scully, FBI," she said, waving her badge in the air even though it was unlikely that the older woman could see it from the distance. "I was trying to find some people to talk to around here. My partner and I arrived last night."

"FBI?" the woman said, the initial friendliness disappearing from her voice. "Haven't seen any of your lot around here for years."

"We're not here in an official capacity," Scully quickly assured her. "We just got lost, and well, curious. We stayed at the hotel over there last night. A Mr. Fraser told us something of what's gone on here in Frostwell. I was hoping to get another perspective."

After a moment, the door to the house opened more fully, and the woman emerged from to stand on the front step. She was petite, about the same height as Scully herself, and dressed in jeans, boots, and an oversize plaid, button up shirt. Her long dark hair was generously shot through with silver and caught up in a messy bun. Her hands, encased in navy blue gardening gloves, landed on her hips.

"Perspective," she repeated. "That's another way of saying you think old Ben is off his rocker, is it?" The woman folded her arms across her chest, her head tilted and her eyes challenging.

"No, ma’am, I didn't say that." Scully left the doorstep of the vacant house and crossed the lawn to stand on the walkway leading up to the older woman's home. "It's clear there's something amiss in this town. We only want to help, Mrs.…?"

"Collins," the woman supplied. "Nora Collins. And we don't need help from your kind. It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place."

"So I've been told." Scully replied quietly, earning a hard look from the older woman. "Mrs. Collins, could you explain to me in your own words what is going on in this place?"

"You mean what happened after something unleashed this monster in our woods, the snow storms started and the government decided to slowly dissolve our town?"

Scully blinked at Nora. The story she told was almost identical to Ben's, although somewhat more straightforward.

"Mrs. Collins, are you and Mr. Fraser the only people left in Frostwell?"

"Why?" Nora asked, clenching her fists inside her gloves. "So you can 'evacuate' us, too? You people should be glad someone stayed behind to keep this charade up for you."

"Mrs. Collins, I assure you my partner and I are not here to do anything to you. We are not here on an official assignment, either. As I told you, we got lost," Scully explained again. "I'm trying to find out what happened to you, and if anyone in this town is in need of help."

The other woman sighed. "There are seven of us left, all over the age of sixty. And we are doing quite fine, thank you. However, you could tell your bosses to start delivering that non-allergenic soap again; the other kind makes me itch."

Scully tried to figure out a polite way to answer the woman's sarcasm, but she noticed Nora's attention wasn't on her anymore. Her eyes were suddenly flung wide open, and fixed at the horizon.

Turning her head to follow the woman's gaze, Scully saw a gigantic mass of dark clouds forming in the sky above the forest. "What the…" she started, but Nora had already grabbed her arm, pulling her up the front steps and into her house.

"Quick, we don't have time!" she called, smashing the door shut behind them.


	9. Chapter 9

“What…what’s happening?” Scully asked, watching as the wild-eyed woman shot the door’s deadbolt home and then dashed to the windows, pulling down shades with a speed that defied her age.

“Don’t just stand there, girl. Help me!”

Blinking, Scully rushed to the windows on the other side of the room. As she reached up to pull down the thick, black shade, she could see the wind beginning to whip icy snowflakes across the darkening sky where only moments ago there had been sun, high white clouds, and a light warm breeze.

"Turn the lights off,” Nora snapped as Scully finished covering the last window. 

“Is it the…creature?” Scully asked, flicking a switch on the wall beside her and plunging the room into gloomy gray shadows.

“It’s awake,” Nora confirmed, pulling off her gardening gloves and dropping them on an end table. “And probably hungry. We should be safe in here. It doesn’t seem to see very well. As long as a building is in complete darkness, complete silence, it’s like it doesn’t notice anything’s there.”

Scully wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly chilled despite her warm jacket, and walked over to stand in front of the locked front door. Hopefully Mulder was safely inside the hotel. Because he shouldn’t be out in this weather, she clarified silently. She may be willing to play along to get Nora to open up, but that doesn’t mean she believes in abominable snowmen.

“Your partner,” Nora said, reading her mind. “Is he at Ben’s?”

“I think so. That’s where he was heading the last time I saw him. I should check in with him though,” she said, pulling her cellphone out of her pocket.

“I wouldn’t advise that,” Nora said, pointing at the phone. “If your partner is with Ben, he’ll be fine. No one knows better than Ben what to do to stay safe. But if he’s not, you don’t want a ringing phone giving away his location.”

Scully lowered her cellphone and looked at Nora for a moment before deciding she was right. Whatever this menace was, it could probably hear, and she didn't want to put Mulder at any increased risk in case he was still outside.

"How far is Mr. Fraser's motel from here?" she asked, putting the cellphone back in her pocket.

"You're not thinking of going out there?" Nora asked, looking at Scully as if she had two heads.

"I need to find my partner," Scully replied.

"You'll only find your death if you go out right now," Nora retorted, pulling her away from the window. "Come upstairs with me and wait till the storm is over:"

Scully hesitated, but there was something about Nora's manner that left little room for objections. With one more glance towards the covered window, she followed her reluctantly up the stairs.

"Why upstairs?" Scully asked as they reached the upper floor. She had suddenly recalled their first meeting with Ben up in the motel's attic.

"It's safer," Nora replied simply. "My gun is upstairs. And the heat is on."

An uncomfortable, cold feeling that had nothing to do with the rapidly dropping temperature started to form in Scully’s stomach. It was the same feeling she got every time she wasn’t sure about Mulder’s whereabouts or safety. Still, Nora was right. Walking into the snow storm would only endanger herself, and do nothing to help Mulder.

Scully slowly followed the older woman upstairs, subconsciously trying to move as quietly as possible and not to bump into any furniture in the dark.

* * *

Mulder kept his cell phone trapped between his cheek and shoulder while jotting down notes on a yellowed piece of paper. Skinner on the other end of the line seemed to be rummaging through papers.

“Frostwell, you said?” the Assistant Director repeated already for the second time. “Isn’t that a bit of an odd name for a town in Southern California?”

“No, no, it’s quite fitting actually,” Mulder replied, scratching the back of his head.

 “And you are sure you have an X-file on this place? This sounds like a simply matter of urban resettlement. Maybe you should check with the local magistrate, not the Bureau,” Skinner offered, obviously not sure what to make of Mulder’s account of the last 15 hours.

“No local office has anything on this town, I’m afraid. There has to be a file, and I need it.” Mulder insisted, and dictated the fax number Ben had provided him earlier.

“Mulder, remember you're not there on an assignment, but to attend the FBI conference. Showing a bit of commitment to the representative and social aspects of your job wouldn’t hurt, considering your…reputation.”

“Certainly, sir,” Mulder replied, but before he could say more, the connection dropped. “Hello? Skinner?” he called, but only a faint, static noise seemed to answer him.

A glance at his phone display told him that he had no reception, so he pushed the device back into his coat pocket. Mulder clenched his teeth. If he wasn’t able to call Scully to confirm her whereabouts, he would have to go find her.

Reaching to open the front door, Ben’s voice coming from the small kitchen behind the former breakfast area startled him.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The old man was leaning against a fridge, holding a cup of steaming instant noodles.

“Do what, Mr. Fraser?” 

“Don’t go looking for your partner. She is safe…or not. Depends on who she ran into. There's nothing you can do about it now,” Ben remarked, pointing at the window.

Only now did Mulder realize that the curtains had been drawn shut again. The front door was heavily bolted. A glance through a tiny hole in the heavy cloth covering the glass confirmed his suspicion. Millions of snowflakes were dancing through the air, already covering the ground again.

“Go upstairs, I have more food there.” Ben walked back into the kitchen and stuck a fork into his noodles. “Do you care for Ramen, Mr. Mulder? Mr. Mulder?”

Walking back into the lobby, Ben was greeted by a widely opened front door, snowflakes already wetting the carpet. Mulder was gone, his footsteps clearly visible in the fresh snow.

“Oh, you fool,” The old man said quietly.

* * *

The snow pelting his face like swarms of tiny stinging insects, Mulder sprinted from the front porch of the hotel and through the parking lot where he had last seen Scully a couple of hours earlier. He hadn’t watched to see which way she went as he returned the hotel and she set out to explore the town, so when he reached the street, he came to an abrupt halt, frantically looking from left to right.

“Which way?” he muttered. “Come on, think like Scully. Which way?” Left, he decided. She’d approach it methodically, start on the left and work her way right, like reading a book. She’d been out there awhile now, so he’d start from the right and hopefully run right into her. Though it was only mid-afternoon, the storm had darkened the sky to twilight, so as he walked he’d watch for lit windows, in case she’d taken shelter inside one of the houses. Perhaps one of the kind citizens of Frostwell had taken pity on her and invited her in. If there were any citizens left.

Hunching his shoulders, Mulder turned right and dashed down Main Street, watching for lit windows and peering down side streets for small figures struggling against the wind as he went. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only fifteen minutes or so, he reached the end of Main Street which abruptly dead-ended just before the edge of the crumbling barrier of junk. 

“Scully,” he shouted, cupping his hands into an improvised megaphone. “Scully, can you hear me?” 

Listening closely for any kind of response, he turned slowly in circle, squinting into the gloom. All he could hear was the wind and the creaking of the precarious wall, and he couldn’t see a single sign of life in any of the nearby houses. From what he could tell, he could be the only person left in all of Frostwell. 

”Scullyyyy!” He tried one more time, but there was no response.

Mulder pulled his phone out of his coat pocket to check if any reception had returned but the whole phone appeared to be dead now as if the battery had gone out as well. “Dammit,” he muttered to himself, pocketing the phone again.

At that moment, a chilly wind seemed to pick up from nowhere, sending the already fallen snow swirling up again to meet with the fresh flakes that still kept falling. The visibility became almost non-existent and the houses that Mulder had tried to look at for any signs of life only moments before were now blurred into barely recognizable shapes.

Returning to the motel was no longer an option. Mulder was only vaguely aware of the direction he had come from, but even if he had set off in that general direction now, he could easily have missed the building by no more than a few yards without ever realizing it.

Shrugging, Mulder set off towards where the houses had been instead. Either someone would let him in, or he would break himself in, and wait until the worst of the storm was over. It was probably what Scully had done, he told himself and almost believed it.

Before Mulder could make it to the buildings, however, he could suddenly feel the falling snow turning into ice, and then he heard the sound.

_Thump._ Something heavy landed on the snow.  _Thump…thump…thump._ They sounded like footsteps – heavy footsteps perhaps one or two blocks away from where Mulder stood, and they were coming closer.

* * *

Nora handed Scully a bowl of steaming soup. “Here, you look like you might need it. Ben isn’t exactly a master chef.”

The two women sat around a low coffee table next to a small radiator. The temperature in the house had dropped drastically, so any source of warmth was a welcome one.

Gratefully, Scully took the food offered to her. She couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten something proper. The raging storm outside and the darkened windows gave her the impression that it was much later in the day, but a quick look at her watch confirmed that it was just past 3:00 pm.

“It’s kind of nice to have you here,” Nora remarked to Scully. “This used to be a lively town, now we consider ourselves lucky if no one takes that wretched highway exit all year. We – Ben, I, and the others, that is – don't spend much time together. Especially when it’s like this. It seems to be attracted to groups of people. It’s safer to be on your own.”

Scully slowly put her spoon down. “Do you know what it really is? This creature?”

“No one really knows what it is. Ben was the one who got the closest to see it, and he remembers very little.” Nora smiled a bit. “When it started, the police, the National Guard and your people got involved, and we all assumed there would be a big media frenzy. But that never happened.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“It’s difficult for us, you know,” the older woman said. “Especially after…”

“Especially after what?” Scully asked when Nora wouldn’t continue, but she only stared into her soup bowl. “What is it, Nora?”

“It’s here. It’s in the town,” she said, and pointed at her bowl. It was only then that Scully noticed the concentric circles that rippled through the liquid at regular intervals, as if some kind of shocks rattled through the earth.

“Oh god,” she whispered. “Mulder, please be somewhere safe.”

 


	10. Chapter 10

Mulder spun around in a circle, trying to locate the source of the noise, but between the whipping snow and the preternatural darkness, he could make out very little. What movement he could see could as easily be trees blowing in the wind as it could be a lumbering snow monster.

That was not a reassuring thought. And still the thumping continued.

He took off at a run in what he hoped was the direction of the nearest house. The complete lack of light in any form, in any direction, left him with little hope for gaining assistance from a friendly townsperson. At this point, his intention was to break into the first house he came to.

The snow was up past his ankles now in places, covering treacherous slippery patches where the snow from the previous night had half-melted before refreezing into icy chunks. He turned his head at a particularly loud thump, just as his foot came down on one such spot. Pain shooting through his right ankle, he went down in a heap, just barely managing to get his arm between his head and the pavement in time to prevent a concussion.

The air whooshed from his lungs, and he rolled over onto his back, staring up at the dark, starless sky, gasping for breath. UP, his mind shouted at him, the vibrations from the thumping rippling through his bones. GET UP!

After rolling to his side and then struggling, first to his knees, and then, painfully, to his feet, Mulder blinked at the sight right in front of him.

A house, the front door standing open, snow drifting into the dark hallway beyond.

Mulder did not pause to consider his options. Still short of breath, he limped to the door as fast as he could and dashed into the dark, snowed-in hallway. He had barely made it inside when another, even louder thump rattled the windows. Whatever was outside, had to be close.

With a growing sense of dread, not only for himself but for Scully as well, Mulder tried to close the door behind him, but the piled-up snow in the doorway, coupled with what appeared to be frozen hinges, made the whole structure immovable. It seemed as if nobody had lived in the house for quite some time.

Instinctively Mulder felt for his gun, making sure he had not lost it in the snow, but he didn’t bother to pull it out. Somehow it seemed unlikely that a small handgun would be of much use against this creature. Instead, without turning his back on the open door, Mulder began moving slowly deeper into the house, trying to look for a spot that might offer a better shelter than the exposed hallway.

The coldness was almost unbearable and the relentless wind kept pushing more and more snow through the open door. When Mulder ventured to check another room, he found it in no better condition. Wind and snow were blowing in through a broken window, leaving the room just as exposed as the hallway. At last Mulder could see no other option than to move upstairs. There he might at least have a chance to stay hidden.

The old, weather-beaten stairs creaked underneath his shoes, and he cursed every sound they made. Even his own breathing seemed loud, giving away his location in tiny white clouds dancing around his face.

It wasn’t any warmer upstairs, but at least the wind didn’t reach all the way up here. Mulder found several rooms with almost no furniture. In some places, the wallpaper had been torn off. At the other end of the hallway, he entered what looked like a former bedroom. The windows head been nailed shut with wooden planks, so it was almost completely dark as he shut the door behind him.

Mulder could make out an overturned couch in the middle of the room, and took cover behind it.  
As he sat down on the dirty floor, he his racing heartbeat slowed. So this was what they were talking about – the abominable snowman. The mocking expression felt even more ironic now. It was not like he had seen anything in the blinding snow, with the cold and fear dulling his senses, but whatever this thing was, it seemed…big.

Breathing as calmly as he could manage, Mulder closed his eyes and focused on his hearing. Except for the howling wind little could be made out. But it was out there, he was sure of it. He just couldn’t hear it anymore. Was it maybe not moving?

With his face turned to the windows, he pulled out his cell phone. It had come back to life, but the battery was low.

Scully. He had to know if she was safe, but he wasn’t ready to take the chance to give away her location by making her phone ring.

Mulder wrapped his coat tighter around himself. He had a lighter in his pocket, but it didn’t seem safe to try to light even the smallest fire with the scraps of paper and pieces of wood next to him.

But he needed to do something. So he speed-dialed another number on his phone.

\---

Her appetite lost to worry, Scully set her soup bowl on the table and stood to pace the small room. At one time it had probably been a bedroom, but now it was outfitted as a crafting room, with a sewing machine set against one wall under the low sloped ceiling. Against the opposite wall stood two wooden chairs, one which of which held Nora, who was absently stirring her soup. The coffee table in front of her was stacked with tissue paper patterns and ragged craft magazines. The old-fashioned iron radiator was under the shuttered dormer window, a large basket full of yarn on the floor beside it.

Scully approached the window, in part to warm her hands atop the radiator, but mainly in hopes of trying to peer through the narrow gaps between the slats of the wooden shutters.   
Squinting, she could just barely make out Nora’s tiny front yard, the snow swept street, and the houses lining the other side.

The snow didn’t appear to be abating.

After a quick glance back at Nora, who was still staring into her bowl, she gingerly lifted one wooden slat and leaned closer to the window, peering out into the dusky faux-night. At first she noticed nothing amiss – well, nothing aside from the obvious – but then she gasped in surprise.

“Nora,” she said, letting go of the slat and turning around. “Who lives in the white house across the street from you?”

Nora blinked and straightened up in her seat, setting her bowl and spoon down on the coffee table. “No one, dear. Not anymore. Why?”

“Well, the door is open, and there are footprints in the snow leading up the steps.”

"What?" Nora joined Scully at the window, peering out carefully through the small opening. 

"Well, those are footprints alright," she said, removing herself from the window as soon as she had made the observation. "Mind you, that door has been open ever since the Westons left in a hurry," she added as she returned to her seat. "Two years ago that was."

"Do you have any idea who might have been outside?" Scully asked, afraid that she already knew the answer.

Nora looked at her with an expression that reminded Scully of Ben, then she shook her head.

"Certainly not anyone from this town," she replied, picking up her bowl of soup. Then she looked at Scully again. "Is that partner of yours a foolhardy type?"

Scully sighed and gave Nora a look that she seemed to understand. Instead of asking more questions, she gave Scully a sympathetic look.

"Well, it does seem like he made it inside," the older woman offered comfortingly. "Even half a shelter is better than no shelter."

Somehow, Scully did not feel comforted.

Leaning against the overturned couch, Mulder dialed the number a third time already. It was hard to keep his teeth from shattering as he listened for the dialing tone. “Come on, Skinner, pick up!” But the line seemed dead. Nothing but a faint sizzling noise could be heard.

Mulder cursed under his breath. Putting his phone down, he closed his eyes to the semi-darkness and started to listen again. His stomach tightened in anticipation of those thumping sounds, but everything remained quiet.

After what felt like a small eternity, he released the breath he had been holding and started to look around the room. It was too dangerous to go out again, but maybe something useful could be found in here. Something that gave information as to what had happened to the former inhabitants.

Since he didn’t have a flashlight, he used his lighter to see. The room seemed pretty bare but it was hard to tell. So the tiny flame led his way to the window, where he nudged his fingers into a crack between two wooden planks. One of them felt a bit loose, so he tore on it. After several tries, he finally felt the wood splinter. The one above it came off easier.

Mulders eyes needed a second to adjust to the milky light that flooded into the room.  
The whiteness of the snow outside seemed so dazzling that he didn’t even realize right away that he was staring into something black.

Behind the planks nailed to the window frame was an uneven black rectangle of cloth, affixed to the window with some sort of glue. One corner had peeled from the glass and was hanging limply, letting in a small amount of light from outside.

“Real fans of the dark, these people,” he muttered, pulling the cloth the rest of the way free from the glass and tossing it over his shoulder. Cupping his hands to the window, he peered outside, looking up and down the empty street, searching for signs of life, and finding none.

“Where are you, Scully?” he asked aloud, dropping his hands and stepping away from the window in frustration. The one optimistic thought he could muster was that if the snow monster was roaming the streets relatively near to him, then presumably it was not currently threatening Scully.

Unless, of course, it had already finished with her.

“Damn it,” he swore, resuming his position at the window. The snow continued to fall, vicious wind whipping it in all directions. Unsurprisingly, he could see no signs of habitation in any of the houses within his line of sight: no cars in the driveways, no welcoming porch lights, no people walking past windows.

Except wait, he thought, blinking hard and pressing his forehead up against the cold glass of the window. What was that?

Something that almost looked like snow itself seemed to be moving further down the street. In fact, apart from the movement and the faint shadow it cast, it was hard to tell where exactly the snowfall ended and this figure began, especially when the snow appeared to be falling the hardest right around the mass that was now moving away from the town's center.

Mulder brought up his sleeve to wipe the vapour of his breath from the window, but by the time the glass was clear and he tried to get a better look at the creature, it had disappeared from sight. The snowing, too, seemed to be slowing down.

For a fraction of a second, Mulder felt the pull of his instinct to follow the snow creature in the direction he had last seen it retreating, but he had a greater priority.

He needed to find to Scully.

Quickly observing that the snowing had now almost completely stopped, Mulder took one more look out of the window and then hurried out of the room, ran down the stairs and rushed outside.

"Where are you, Scully?" he muttered as he came to a halt outside, slowly taking a turn of 360 degrees as he tried to look for any signs that might lead him to her.

Then, his phone rang.

The sound was so foreign in the absolutely silent winter landscape it made him jump.

“Y-yes?” he answered, unable to compose himself. Did he have reception again?

“Mulder, this is Skinner.” The Assistant Director’s voice was distorted by static, but Mulder breathed a sigh of relief nonetheless.

“Skinner…”

“Mulder, listen to me.” The man on the other end of the line skipped any pleasantries. “There is…” The static cut off the connection. “…this is really important.”

“Skinner, I can’t hear you properly,” Mulder whispered into the phone. His fingers felt like ice already. Then it occurred to him that he was standing in the middle of the street, and was exposed to, well, everything. He entered someone’s drive way, and ran up to what used to be a garage. Pressing his back against the wall of the house, he tried again.

“Skinner, repeat, please.”

“Mulder, this is…” The static sounded like chalk on board, and Mulder struggled not to let go off the device. He could make out almost nothing Skinner was saying. Until the very last second.

“… out of there!” And the line dropped.

“Skinner?...Skinner? Oh well, that was helpful.”

Mulder scanned his surroundings. It had been foolish to run out after Scully like this – she could be in any of these houses. Then again, it would have been impossible for him not to go out to find her. If something happened to her…

Then suddenly, a whisper came from his left. “Don’t make a sound.”


	11. Chapter 11

Scully found herself returning to the window every few minutes, gently lifting the wooden slats of the shutters and peering outside, despite continual remonstrations from Nora. She knew Mulder all too well, and with no one around to convince him of the need to stay hidden, he would be outside again as soon as the need to do something, anything, overcame his better judgement. It wouldn't take long.

"Sit down, Miss Scully," Nora insisted for at least the tenth time. "There is nothing you can do for him now; we just have to wait for it to go back to its den. The snow will slow, then stop, and only then will it be safe to venture outside. Surely your partner knows that himself. That has to be why he's taken shelter in the Weston house."

What Mulder knew and what he would acknowledge, namely any danger to himself, could be two quite different things, particularly if he thought her own safety was in question. But Scully wasn't going to try to explain that to Nora. All she could do was keep watch and hope that Mulder would stay inside until it was safe.

If not, she would have no choice but to go out there herself.

The snowing seemed to be slowing down. At first the change manifested itself only by a slight improvement in visibility, but little by little Scully became certain that there were fewer snow flakes floating down between Nora's house and the one across the street with the open door.

She fixed her eyes on that door again, half expecting Mulder to emerge from it at any given moment, but hoping he would remain inside. It was probably not safe outside yet, or at least Nora didn't seem to think so.

"You should come away from the window, Miss Scully," she spoke from the other end of the room when Scully mentioned she thought the snowing had subsided. "You are not helping your partner from there."

Scully sighed. She knew all too well that she was not helping Mulder, and that fact bothered her more with every passing moment. What if he had already gone outside? What if he had slipped out and disappeared into the blizzard while she was not looking? The snow could have covered the tracks quickly, just as it had already covered the ones of his entrance.

It was hardly snowing anymore. She had to go out.

\--

Mulder squinted his eyes. "Who's there?" he hissed into the half-dark.

"Quiet!" the voice came again, more forceful this time. Leaning onto his rifle, Ben stepped into the light.

"Mr. Fraser! What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I couldn’t let you be the monster's lunch, now could I? That would only send more of your sort out here again."

Mulder wiped a few melting snow flakes off his brow. "Where is the monster now?"

"On its way out of town, I think, but I can’t be sure. And you look like an icicle, to be polite about it." Ben briefly touched Mulder’s arm. "We need to get you out of here."

With astonishment, the younger man watched as Ben walked to the back of the garage and strategically lifted two large metal panes off the basement door.

"What are you doing?" Mulder hissed at the older men.

Ben started climbing down the first steps, gesturing Mulder to follow him.

"Make sure you properly close up again. We are paying good old Nora a visit."

"Who?" Mulder asked, following Ben through the opening and then turning to slide the metal barricade back in place before closing the door behind him.

Ben just waved him off, continuing his careful descent down the rickety wooden stairs leading into the house’s storm cellar. The sky outside had been brightening as the snowstorm came to an end, and now a sickly, pale gray light was fighting its way in through the room’s sole tiny window. The walls of cracked and water-stained concrete were lined with metal shelving holding canned goods, bags of flour and sugar and other non-perishables. Baskets of apples and burlap sacks of root vegetables sat on the floor in front of the shelves. On the opposite wall was another staircase, presumably leading up into the house.

"Who’s Nora?" Mulder asked again, as he followed Ben over to the other stairs.

"A damned fool woman who should have cleared out of here a long time ago," Ben snapped, with unexpected vehemence.

\---

Having observed that the snowing had stopped, Scully had finally made up her mind to head out, but she was only half way out of the room when a sudden noise from downstairs brought her to a halt. She could swear she had heard the floorboards creak as if someone or something had walked on them.

"Nora," she whispered, backing slowly into the room she had just left, her fingers reaching for the hilt of her gun. "I think there's someone downstairs."

For a second Nora froze. Her eyes widened and Scully thought she saw genuine fear pass through them, but then she let out a breath and all of a sudden her expression changed to something akin to annoyance.

"Ben Fraser," Nora muttered under her breath. "That damned fool of a man."

"Ben...Mr. Fraser?" Scully asked. "The motel manager?"

"The same man," Nora replied curtly, standing up and striding out of the room and over to the landing of the stairs. "That damned fool," she muttered to herself as she passed.

Scully looked on for a moment, bemused. Then she followed Nora out of the room.

"Scully!" Mulder called from down the stairs before he even properly set eyes on her.

She replied in kind, saying his name in the soft, reassuring tone of voice she had adopted over their years of working together. The relief in it was clearly audible. A slow smile spread on his face as he climbed the stairs behind Ben.

Scully felt Nora's eyes on her. "My partner, Fox Mulder," she explained, vaguely pointing in his direction.

"Your partner," Nora repeated quietly. "I see."

Thankfully, the older woman immediately turned her attention to the men. "You two are downright idiotic, you know that? Traipsing through town like that, with the monster on the loose…" she scolded, and Ben automatically pulled his head between his shoulders.

"Nothing happened, did it?" he asked, grumpily. "Besides, I had to follow him. Couldn't let him be the monster's dinner, hrmph?" With that, he slipped past Nora. "By the way, I smell food…"

The older woman rolled her eyes and followed Ben into her kitchen, barely noticing the fact that Mulder had put his hand on Scully's arm.

"Are you alright?" the FBI agent whispered into Scully's ear. Only after they gave each other a long, searching look did they enter the warm living room.

Ben had already served himself a bowl of soup, and rested comfortable in an overstuffed armchair. Just emerging from the kitchen, Nora handed Mulder a bowl as well, which he gratefully accepted.

"You two were very lucky, you know," she commented, throwing another hard glance at Ben. "It was a narrow escape."

"It's odd though." he replied after swallowing a spoonful of soup.

"Odd how?" Mulder asked, slowly sitting down on the couch next to Ben.

"Well…" he started, giving Nora a long look. "Don’t you think it's behaving kind of strange? I mean, it was always there, and we sure were aware of it, but it never came out of the forest several times a day, now did it? This is all not normal. Something seems to be upsetting it."

"Nothing about this is normal," Scully muttered to Mulder as she took a seat next to him on the couch, but he wasn’t listening to her. Instead he was looking from Ben to Nora curiously.

"It doesn't normally come into the town?" he repeated.

Nora shook her head scornfully. "He's exaggerating. It comes into the town whenever it damned well wants to come into town. I expect it just woke up hungry is all. It already ate everything living in the forest and now it's getting sick of being vegetarian, so it came in search of fresh meat."

"Exaggerating!" Ben practically shouted, jumping up and sloshing soup over the edge of his bowl. "I don't exaggerate, you fool woman! You know damned well it rarely comes out of the forest anymore. When's the last time it snowed two days in a row, answer me that!"

Nora spun on her heel and stalked across the room, raising the blinds on the front window and letting in the burgeoning sunlight, before turning back to the others.

“Well I don't know Ben, I'm not its secretary; I don’t keep track of its schedule." A softer tone belied her sarcastic words, and she shook her head as she spoke, beginning to look her age for the first time since Scully had made her acquaintance.

Ben watched her move from one window to the next, pulling up the rest of the blinds.

"Nora," he said gently. "Trust me. Something isn’t right."

She didn't answer, just took a seat in the chair Ben had abandoned and stared out the window as he turned to Mulder and Scully. "I’ve been tracking this thing and its behaviour for the better part of a decade. Something has changed. Mark my words, something has changed."

A short silence followed. Ben limped his way slowly to another chair and sat down while Nora's eyes remained fixed on the window. Scully and Mulder exchanged looks.

Finally it was Mulder who spoke up:

"You say you have been tracking this thing," he said, turning to Ben. "Have you written anything down?"

Before Ben could answer, Nora turned her head from the window.

"Has he written anything down?" she said with a harumph. "You should see the files he keeps in his basement."

Scully raised her eyebrows, giving Mulder a look.

"Files in a basement?" she asked, trying to hold back a smile as she looked from Mulder to Ben.

"Files! Ha!" Ben grunted. "I'd hardly call them files. A few scraps of paper where I've scribbled down some notes and drawn maps."

"A few scraps of paper..." Nora muttered, getting up. She turned to Mulder and Scully, tilting her head towards the desk in the corner. "And it's not just his basement. He keeps bringing me copies as well."

Brusquely, Nora pulled a large, rolled up paper out of the bottom drawer of the desk. "This is what he gave me last Christmas, for instance. And he keeps coming over to update it," she explained and unrolled the paper on her coffee table. It almost covered the entire piece of furniture. Ben let out a gruff sound, but couldn't stop his ears from turning red.

Both Scully and Mulder leaned in to study the paper. Underneath a meticulously designed table documenting the monster's attacks and appearances, Ben had drawn a graph, illustrating the data he had collected.

Scully raised an eyebrow. For a one-armed man, the handwriting was neat and, more importantly, the graph seemed to make sense.

"See here." Ben pointed at the paper. "It's obvious the monster has been up to more shenanigans than usual in the past 9 weeks or so."

"Yes." Scully confirmed. "If the dates are correct, the monster has indeed been more active in the past two months than in the last two years."

Ben scoffed, but smiled. "Finally someone who believes me!" he dramatically gestured at Nora. "I made the plan for her so she could see that there were certain patterns in the monster's behavior. So she'd know when it was safe to go around town. But she says I am overreacting."

"All I am saying," Nora started, raising her hands in defeat. "Is that you have to look at the facts. As said, the monster may well be running out of food. There isn't a big conspiracy behind every single thing that happens here."

"You two remind me of someone," Mulder suddenly interjected, studying their banter. "But what about this?" he asked, pointing at a point on Ben’s graph.

"Oh. That," Ben said quietly. "Well I don’t really know what to make of that."


	12. Chapter 12

“We thought it was over,” Nora said wistfully, looking at Mulder’s finger pointing at the months’ long trough that preceded the creatures recently increased activity. “Six months it was, with no snow. My vegetable garden grew. I had fresh tomatoes. I even thought I saw a bird one day…” As her voice trailed off, Ben reached over and briefly touched the back of her hand, one finger gently tracing along the top of her knuckles. Her eyes flew to his, lingering in some kind of wordless communication.

Mulder glanced at Scully and she shrugged, leaning over to more closely examine Ben’s work, leaving the older couple to their moment. After a few seconds, Ben cleared his throat.

“We don’t know why it started up again. Don’t know why it stopped in the first place. I hoped the damned thing was dead. Now it's worse than ever."

"Has this happened before?" Scully asked, examining Ben's graph. "Has it disappeared before for any period of time?"

"No," Nora replied, looking at Ben, "Not like this, anyway."

"There actually are some seasonal changes...patterns, I would say," Ben elaborated. "For some reason it always seems to be the least active during winter, but it took me a few years to realize that because that thing has turned the whole damn climate around this area upside down."

When Ben paused for breath, Nora placed a hand on his remaining arm. He glanced at her and then continued: "It never used to snow here, of course," he said wistfully, as if remembering endless summers long past. Then his expression hardened again. "We're in Southern  California for crying out loud!" he spat out. "But since the beast came we've started getting snow in the winter months, too, and it's not always because that thing is near. Sometimes it just snows, and the trick is knowing when it's the safe winter snow and when it isn't."

"We thought it was always the monster because it shouldn't otherwise snow here, but then Ben here figured out we had developed an actual winter," Nora added, shaking her head.

"Are you saying that this is a hibernating snow monster?" Scully asked, raising an eyebrow sceptically.

"Or perhaps a migrating one," Mulder quipped.

All eyes turned to Mulder.

"Think about it, Scully," he said, turning to his partner. "Birds do it, bees do it, and some whales from polar regions move south to warmer waters when it's time to mate."

"Mulder, you're not saying...." Scully began. She shook her head but did not bother to finish her sentence because she knew it would be exactly what he was saying.

 Mulder nodded his head, turning to address Ben and Nora: "Maybe this snow creature moves north in the winter to seek  _colder_  climate for breeding."

 “Are you suggesting…” Nora’s lips curled with distaste “that there is more than one such creature? And that they're multiplying?”

“Oh good Lord, does that mean we will have to deal with the beast  _and_ its offspring soon?” Ben huffed in exasperation. He tried his best to seem annoyed, but something told Scully that he was also intrigued by the idea. 

“Not quite Mr. Fraser.” Mulder grinned a little. “I think you already are dealing with it.”

“What do you mean?” Nora asked, as if unwilling to make the connection herself. 

Scully, sensing the panic in the other woman’s voice, answered before Mulder had a chance to open his mouth. “I believe what Agent Mulder is trying to say is that the creature left town to mate. And either had the baby here or brought it to this place.”  she explained calmly.

“Mazel tov!” Ben remarked sarcastically.

Scully threw Mulder a look. “This might indeed explain why it has been more active in the past weeks. It's looking for alternative food source. This is its natural habitat, but resources are running out. What I don’t understand is how it would migrate without being noticed. It seemed to be of considerable size.”

“True.” Mulder conceded. “But California is large, too, and so are these forests and hinterlands.”

“Why doesn’t it go up to Alaska? It would love it there, no doubt.” Nora sighed. “So, what are we supposed to do now?”

“Well,” said Mulder, “I think finding it would be a good place to start.”

“Boy, you are out of your damned mind?” Ben cursed, rising and taking an unsteady step in Mulder’s direction. “Haven’t you heard a single word I’ve told you since you’ve got here?”

“It’s far too dangerous, Mr. Mulder,” Nora added, looking not at him, but at Ben, a mask of concern on her face. The older man’s cheeks were red and his sole hand was clenching and unclenching as he glared at the two FBI agents.

Nora turned her gaze to Mulder and continued. “We tried to sedate it, to restrain it, to kill it. Nothing worked. It was too strong, and every time people got close to it, someone was badly hurt, or killed outright. It was even able to smash right through the barrier we built! Three people were killed trying to get out of the town!”

“I understand that, Mrs. Collins, I do, but please just…” Mulder turned to include Ben. “Please, both of you, hear me out.”

Nora sighed, but nodded. Ben seemed about to say more, but at a look from Nora, snapped his mouth shut and retook his seat.

Mulder glanced at Scully before speaking. “Agent Scully and I belong to a division of the FBI that investigates what we call X files. These are cases that deal with strange and unexplained phenomena, things the average citizen never hears anything about. I think you’d agree that your abominable snowman fits our criteria.”

Ben and Nora exchanged sceptical looks. “I told you the FBI was already here,” Ben reminded him tersely. “The government knows all about us and they haven’t been able to help.”

Mulder looked at his feet in what Scully recognized as faux-embarrassment. “Mr. Fraser, the US government is not the most efficient of machines. Frostwell’s case should have been referred to our division a long time ago. Clearly it wasn’t.”

“Clearly,” Ben interjected sarcastically.

“Mr. Fraser,” Mulder continued. “I just need you to help me find where the monster hides out, and I promise you, I will call Washington and I will have every one of the considerable resources at my disposal brought on site to deal with this problem for once and for all.”

Scully stared at him.  _Considerable resources? What considerable resources?_

Mulder raised his eyebrow and tilted his head slightly as if asking her to play along. Scully gave him a warning look but remained silent, allowing Mulder to push his plan forward, whatever it was.

When she turned back to Ben and Nora, it seemed like they had gone through a silent exchange of their own. Glancing one more time at Nora, Ben cleared his throat.

"I can't guarantee your safety if I show you where the beast lives," he said gravely. Then Nora nudged him and he continued: "And I can't come with you, and neither can Nora."

"We would not expect you to," Mulder said. "In fact, Scully..." he continued, turning back to his partner, but Scully would not let him finish.

"I  _am_ coming with you, Mulder," she said flatly, her tone indicating that the matter was non-negotiable.

She knew the look Mulder was throwing her only too well – concerned, yes, but it was obvious he was calculating the risks and benefits of taking his partner with him. Like he always did in situations like these. Then, he slowly nodded. Like he always did.

"Alright,” he said. “I ' ll call in reinforcements. If you give us directions, Agent Scully and I will stake out your snowman and see if it really has…an offspring to provide for at the moment, or what other weaknesses it may have. Prepare for the troops to come in, you know.” 

“Mr. Mulder,” Nora said again. “Are you really sure your unit inside the FBI is equipped to deal with something like this? I mean, this creature has been wre a king havoc in this place for years now. And the government thought it best to simply abandon us when they couldn’t deal with it. What do you think would be different now?”

Expectantly, Scully looked at Mulder. She wondered how he would answer to Nora’s interjection.

“There is cases all over this country similar to yours , ” Mulder explained. “Not all of them concern a weather-influencing, dangerous creature, but as  I  said, unexplained phenomena  exist everywhere. And I've  learned that once you put the right label on a thing, the government deals with it better.”

“You make it sound like it’s doing your taxes, ” Ben pointed out sarcastically. “But if you insist on being the monster’s next dinner, you are very welcome to be. Might keep it out of town a while longer.”

The older man flipped the chart about the creature’s activity over, revealing the plan of the city he had sketched on the backside. “It’s always good to be prepared, ”  he said, noticing Scully’s slightly surprised look. “Now, remember the cave you mentioned yesterday?”

* * *

“Troops, Mulder?” Scully asked as the two of them trudged through the melting snow, back through the gap in the rubbish barricade, and in the general direction of the cave they had seen in the woods the previous evening. “Where the hell are we going to get troops?”

Mulder shrugged, unconcerned. “I’ll call Frohike; the Gunmen will come out and be our minions. Or Skinner will send us some baby agents. Whatever, Scully. Let’s just find it first, huh?”

Scully rolled her eyes and hurried to keep up with her partner’s long-legged stride as he passed beyond the edge of the treeline. The sun was shining through the gaps in the foliage overhead, leaving puddles of light on the forest floor and the ability to see where they were going made the walk much easier, if not much drier, than the one they took last night. 

Ben had said they should be reasonably safe as long as the sun was out, but they’d be well advised to hightail it back to the town the instant clouds started to move in.

“It doesn’t take long,” the old man told them as they left Nora’s house. “You saw how fast a storm can blow up.”

“You have to pay constant attention,” Nora added. “If you get distracted, even for a minute, it could be too late.”

Scully glanced up at the sky again to make sure it remained clear and then hurried on to keep up with Mulder who was already getting ahead.

"What do you think we're actually going to find in that cave?" she called after him, partly out of genuine curiousity, but mostly just to stop him from getting too far ahead.

It worked. Her words made Mulder pause and turn around.

"What do  _you_  think we'll find?" he countered as soon as she had reached his side.

"I don't know, Mulder," Scully replied as they began walking again. "But whatever it is, we should probably approach it carefully. I think.." She paused mid-sentence and grabbed Mulder's arm, pointing at the sky. "Look," she whispered.

The sky that had been clear only moments before had suddenly turned cloudy, and the trees around them were now swaying to a wind that appeared to have picked up from nowhere.

Mulder looked up at the sky, and then down at Scully, with a delighted grin on his face. Scully knew without asking that it was what he had been waiting.

"Well Dr. Scully, do you have a rational explanation for this?" he asked, raising his eyebrow.

 


	13. Chapter 13

Scully let go off his arm, refusing the urge to roll her eyes. “I’m a medical doctor. Not a meteorologist. Or a cryptozoologist, in this case,” she explained. Was that a smirk on his face?

“Well, regardless of what you are, the snowman seems to be getting closer again,” Mulder said and led her closer to the line of trees at his right side. “We’ll need to go under cover.”

Scully ducked slightly as she followed her partner, and only as her hands touched the nearest tree she let out a breath she had not known she’d been holding.

“This is the second time it’s appearing today. It may indeed have a baby monster sitting at home, wailing for food,” Mulder whispered to her, his eyes fixed to the steel-grey clouds in the sky.

He tried to move on, but the touch of Scully’s hand in his stopped him. “Wait,” she whispered. “You know more than you`re telling me. Why are we going to spy out this creature on our own, when we very well could call in some support first? This is ludicrous! What are you trying to find? Or prove?”

“Scully, this creature seems to be more aggressive now than it was before. Why that is I cannot tell you for sure, but I think groups of FBI agents or soldiers trampling through its habitat might put it on edge even more. We have a better chance at assessing the situation if it’s just the two of us for now.”

Scully opened her mouth to reply, but her throat was closed shut by the sound of a breaking branch behind the two of them.

Slowly, not wanting to make any sudden moves, she turned in the direction of the noise.

“I knew you two fools didn’t have the sense God gave a pair of goats,” said Ben, appearing from behind a snow laden pine, his rifle on a strap slung over his shoulder and a long, sturdy branch in his hand acting as a makeshift cane. “What’s so difficult to understand about ‘watch the damned sky’?”

“Mr. Fraser!” Scully exclaimed, taking a step towards him. “You shouldn’t be out here! Where’s Nora?”

“I snuck out when she went to the john,” he grumbled. “She’s going to be furious with me, but then that’s nothing new. Couldn’t let you idiots wander around out here and get yourselves killed. Come on, back this way.” He pointed his branch back the way he came.

Scully was perfectly okay with that suggestion. “He’s right, Mulder," she said, turning back to her partner. "We can’t even see two feet in front of ourselves. Let’s go back and…Mulder?”

But there was no one behind her, just a few rapidly disappearing footprints in the snow leading further into the dark forest.

Scully repressed the urge to shout out after him, knowing a raised voice might only lead all of them to an even greater danger.

"Dammit Mulder," she muttered instead, kicking the snow in frustration.

"He does that a lot, eh?" Ben asked, laying a steadying hand on Scully's shoulder as if guessing she was about to bolt after her partner.

"Just like somebody else I know," said a low voice from behind them.

Startled, Scully turned quickly to face the speaker. She found Nora staring past her at Ben's back.

"Nora," he growled, without turning to look.

"I should have known you'd go after them, Ben Fraser," she said. "You damned fool."

"And I should have known you wouldn't have the sense to stay behind," Ben hissed back at her. 

Scully looked from one to the other, and then at the footprints that had now almost entirely disappeared. She made her decision and, without a word, set off in the direction Mulder had gone. Ben and Nora could follow her if they chose to, but she had to go after Mulder while there still was a trail to follow.

“I am not even going to say ‘men will be men’ because that would only encourage you! You are incorrigible!” Nora ranted on, “Isn’t that right Ms Scully?” she asked, looking at where the young woman had stood only moments ago, but spotted her darting across the snow, following her partner deeper into the forest.

“Now look what you made her do!” Nora barked at Ben, pulling a gun out of her anorak. Ben watched smilingly as his friend stomped through the snow, following the woman who had become a dot between the trees.

“Well, at least we get a bit more adventure around here again,” he pointed out to himself, and followed Nora.

***

The heavy snow and the thicket of the forest made it almost impossible for Mulder to walk, especially with his ankle still tender from his earlier fall, but he knew he couldn’t stop.

His sense of direction told him that he had to be close to the cave they had discovered yesterday.

Was the snowman hiding in same place the locals had tried to use as its prison? Not entirely unreasonable, if it wasn’t able to find other shelter.

Mulder kept on walking, but had to lift his feet higher with every step. A cold feeling spread in his stomach, and he wasn’t sure if it was the freezing temperature or Scully’s questions about what he planned on doing once he had discovered the creature’s hideout. 

Maybe he should have planned this better, but there was no turning back now. It was in that moment he stepped onto a snow slab and fell into darkness.

He landed in soft, cold, and nearly unrelenting blackness, the relative daylight of the forest now some ten feet above him. Swearing under his breath, he tested his limbs for injury before clambering to his feet, annoyed but unbroken.

Pulling a flashlight from his coat pocket, he debated the relative merits of staying hidden in the darkness versus finding a way out this mess, before ultimately switching it on. Being eaten by an abominable snowman would at least be faster than freezing to death.

The light from the flashlight seemed to move in slow motion, as if even it was half frozen. But when it finally reached though the darkness to the farthest corners of the cavern, Mulder could only stare in disbelief at the sight in front of him.

***

“Mulder!” Scully whisper-shouted into the forest, her compromise between fear for her partner and self-preservation. “Mulder, where are you!?”

His trail was getting harder and harder to follow in the windswept darkness. More than once she was forced to crouch down for a better look, attempting to dust the fluffy snow aside with a tissue she found in her pocket in order to reveal the hard-packed footprints.

Behind her she could hear Ben and Nora’s quiet bickering as they followed and if she weren’t so frightened for Mulder she would probably laugh. She wondered if they even knew they were in love.

“Miss Scully,” Ben called to her suddenly, his gruff voice alarmed. “Stop! Stay where you are and don’t move an inch!” 

Scully paused, looking around for Ben. He was limping hurriedly towards her, being careful to follow the footprints Scully has left behind. Nora was right behind him

"What is it? Did you see something?" Scully asked in a hurried whisper as soon as the two had reached her.

"No," Ben said gruffly, "but somewhere around here is another entrance to the cave."

"He says it's an entrance, I say it's a hole," Nora cut in, rolling her eyes. "A right death trap it is, I tell you. Mr. Peters fell down there three years ago and that was the end of him."

"What Nora is saying," Ben continued when she paused to take a breath, "is that you have to watch your step."

"Thank you, Mr. Fraser," Scully replied. "Thank you Mrs. Collins," she added, giving Nora a nod. Then, casting her eyes around her, she tried to see where Mulder's footprints had gone.

"You missed his prints," Ben said, his tone surprisingly soft. "He turned left just a few yards back. That's why you needed to stop."

Scully looked down at the prints she thought she had been following but realized the heavy snowfall and the unevennes of the ground had managed to trick her. To her left, she could still see a set of prints veering further away.

"We'll have to follow our own tracks back before we can follow those prints," Nora said, nudging Scully gently. "It's not safe to cross when we can't be sure what's underneath."

Scully nodded and thanked Nora again, silently cursing her own blindness.

"At least it's not snowing anymore," she observed out loud as she lead the way.

She did not see Nora and Ben exchange grave looks behind her, but she thought she heard Ben mutter under his breath: "It usually stops when it's done eating."


	14. Chapter 14

Mulder wasn't sure how long exactly he had been standing there, but only as his lungs finally let out the breath he had been holding, he seemed to come out of a trans-like state.

A human skeleton, sitting with its back to the rock, stared back at Mulder from black, empty eye sockets. Several bits of torn clothing still clung to the grey-looking bones, but it was impossible to identify whether they had belonged to a man or a woman.

Mulder noticed that several of the ribs were crushed, and the left leg seemed to be missing entirely. Other bones looked like they had been chewed on.

"I assume you are the pig head on a pole." Mulder whispered, "Or just leftovers from a snack."

Slowly, he turned away from the skeleton, and shone his light at his surroundings. The rock was black and smooth. _This has to be another entrance to the cave_ , he thought to himself.

He looked down at the ground. Except for his own traces, the bit of snow that had fallen through the hole above him seemed untouched. This was the creature's lair, he was sure of it. But it had to be using another entrance. Mulder could hear the blood rushing in his ears.

Wondering what direction to turn, he turned in a circle. From what he could tell, the tunnel ended on his left hand side, so he faced right. Controlling his breathing the best he could and placing his hand on the wall to feel his way, he slowly started walking.

His boots made an almost inaudible crunching noise on the dry ground, and it was enough to make him nervous.  
Pulling out his gun, he leaned against the rock. He had no idea how long this tunnel was, or what was behind the next corner.

If Scully was here, she would…no, he could not think about her now. She was safe, with Ben and Nora. Mulder shook his head.

As he stood there, trying to collect his thoughts, the gravel crunching underneath his shoes seemed impossibly loud.

Then, his eyes flung open.

It was not him causing this grating, muffled noise, he was standing completely still. The noise sounded like something…breathing.

Biting back an involuntary curse, he took a quick step backward and then another, not knowing where exactly he was going, but getting further away from the laboured breathing could only be in his best interest. Unfortunately, his third step backward landed him on a patch of ice. His foot slid out from under him and this time he couldn’t stop the forthcoming oath. It echoed throughout the tunnel as his flashlight flew from his hand, hitting the stone wall and flickering into darkness as he landed in a heap on the tunnel floor.

***

"There," Ben said, his lone arm extended in front of him. "Look."

About ten yards away, the trail made from Mulder's footprints abruptly ended in front of a large hole in the snow and ice. The jagged edges of the hole were just wide enough in diameter for a large man to fall through.

"Mulder!" Scully shouted, no longer concerned with staying quiet. She took off at a run towards the opening, panic building in her chest. He could have broken a leg when he fell through the ice onto the hard rock below. He could be hurt, or unconscious, or worse if the creature…

A small, but deceptively strong hand grabbed her arm and yanked her to a stop a couple of feet from the opening. 

"Miss Scully!" Nora admonished her, her voice ragged from exertion. "Unless you want to end up broken on the bottom of that hole along with your partner, I suggest you stop and think about what you are doing!"

Scully turned to look at Nora, exasperated.

"And what if he is lying there with a broken limb, uncoscious, or something even worse?" she asked, unable to hide the panic in her voice, but knowing even as she spoke that Nora was right. The only way she could help Mulder now was by remaining rational, and diving down a hole in the ground with no idea how long the drop would be, or what would await her down there, was the opposite of rational.

"The other entrance isn't far," Ben's huffing voice interrupted her thoughts. With his limp, he was struggling to keep up. "I suggest we go 'round that way."

"We?" Nora asked, raising her eyebrow at Ben.

"I don't know about you, Nora, but I'm seeing this to the end," he replied, lowering his voice. "I'm done hiding and skulking."

Scully sighed as another wordless exchange seemed to take place between her two companions. Her impatience was growing in parallel with the worry she felt, and if she had not needed Ben and Nora to show her the way to the other entrance, she would have taken off again without them.

Nora still said nothing, but finally Scully could see her nod her head almost imperceptibly, and as soon as she had done so, Ben cleared his throat and turned to look at Scully.

"Well, this way, then, Miss Scully," he said, pointing towards an opening between the trees where, in times of less snow, a path probably cut through the forest. "Like I said, it's not far."

***

Mulder pressed his hand against his thumping head. He knew he hadn’t been lying on the ground for long, but the moment his skull had hit the icy ground, everything had turned rather blurry around him.

Inspecting his hand for any traces of blood, Mulder slowly rolled onto his stomach. He could feel the cold in his bones, and breathed a sigh of relief. He was freezing, but he hadn’t lost the sensation in his arms and legs. Hopefully no hypothermia yet.

His flashlight had rolled several feet away from where he was lying on the ground, he could make out the artificial cone of light in a corner.

Then he remembered that sound of breathing. Mulder froze and listened intently. Was it gone? He couldn’t tell. His head was spinning. 

Heaving himself up onto all four, he crawled into the direction he knew his flashlight to be. By the time he had found it stuck between two rocks, Mulder had to lie down again. Did he have a concussion? For the second time in less than an hour he wished Scully was there. 

Mulder knew he had to get a move on quickly, as falling asleep with a head injury – and in the vicinity of a man-eating monster – didn't seem like a healthy idea. But the thought of standing up was enough to make him feel dizzy.

Just went he thought the knocking inside his skull was subsiding again, a hissing sound to his left caused him to jerk up, shining his light directly into an eye so black it almost seemed like a dark hole in the snow. 

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed, and the words echoed back at him as he scrambled crab-like over to the rock wall and pressed himself tightly against it. Pulling his gun from his waistband, he pointed it at the slowly blinking eye, just barely containing the urge to fire.

The creature hissed again, but didn’t make any move to grab him and eat him. Mulder cautiously directed the flashlight beam away from the creature’s eye to illuminate the rest of its body.

Prone on the cave floor, it appeared to be at least twenty feet long, but where exactly the creature ended or began was hard to distinguish, because even with no open sky above, snow somehow seemed to surround it, swirling around it as if part of its very being. Still, somewhere beneath the snow, Mulder thought he could discern something bulky and solid - something real and concrete that, if he dared to step closer, he might even be able to touch. 

"Good kitty," Mulder whispered, though the thing’s resemblance to a cat began and ended with its sharp fangs and claws. "Nice kitty." Not daring to let go of either his gun or the flashlight, he stood awkwardly, shuffling his back up along the rock wall. His injured head threated to fall off his shoulders, but he couldn't concern himself with that now.

The creature's eye blinked again and glittered malevolently, but still it didn’t move.

"Why aren't you trying to have me for lunch?" he muttered, directing the flashlight up and down the creature's form. "Not hungry?"

As if in answer, the creature emitted a low keening cry.

Instinctively, Mulder attempted to step further back, but he found himself already against the wall. With unsteady hands, he brought his gun up and aimed it at the creature, ready to shoot at the slightest provocation.

But the creature did not move. The cry ended in what sounded almost like a whimper, and then the entire cave was silent again.

Mulder knew this was his moment to run. He could have started inching away slowly, but something kept him rooted on the spot, locked in eye contact with this strange beast that did not seem to have the strength to come forward.

"What are you?" he whispered, lowering his gun and raising his flashlight again. His curiosity was urging him to step closer. The creature blinked, and Mulder wondered if it could understand him.

"You are so old, aren't you?" he continued, carefully taking a step forward. The creature did not move at all.

Mulder was just about to take another step when suddenly his flashlight began to flicker.

“Oh hell, not again!” he whispered to himself, shaking the cylinder as if trying to recharge the battery by motion. The light flickered one last time, then died, leaving him in the dark.


	15. Chapter 15

Instinctively, Mulder held his breath, trying to camouflage himself, even though he knew it did nothing to help. The creature knew he was there, it didn’t seem to need any light at all.

But its breathing didn’t change. The long swishing of air that escaped its lungs was slowly drawn back in. It didn’t seem to move at all, but Mulder knew it was still staring at him in the dark.

“You are really not well, are you?” he asked directly, almost expecting an answer.

Slowly, he moved away from the wall, carefully placing one foot in front of the other. He registered an alarmed shift in the breath of the creature, and froze in his tracks. It seemed to calm down again, getting used to his presence. His eyes started to adjust to the lack of light.

“It’s alright. I won' t hurt you,” he explained, and somehow knew it understood.

Slowly, he crouched down next to the abominable snowman, and placed both hands onto its fur. It felt absolutely icy, but Mulder didn’t flinch.

The creature’s eye was still fixed intently at him, but even if it wanted to attack, it didn’t seem to have the strength for it. Not anymore.

“You didn’t want to die alone,” Mulder said, both to himself and the creature that had terrorized an entire town for the past several  years.

* * *

“Mulder?” Scully called out, her voice echoing strangely from the  cave  walls. “Mulder where are you?”

“I don’t think it’s wise to draw any attention to us, Miss Scully,” Ben quietly remarked behind her, “We' re getting close now. Damn, I didn’t think I’d ever be down here again.”

“Well, you are,” Nora hissed sharply, “Now move it, before Mr. Mulder loses an arm, too, and you two can start an act together."

The tunnel became narrower towards the end, and Scully had to resist the urge to start running. If something had happened to him, she wouldn’t know what to do. 

Her sense of direction told her that Ben was right, they had to be getting close to the entrance Mulder had fallen through.  They had gone far beyond the point where she and Mulder had turned back last night, passing the bolted end of the long chain that first attracted their attention some time ago.  Why hadn’t they found him yet?

A feeling of sickness rose in her stomach like a wave. She felt Nora’s hand on her shoulder. The older woman didn’t say a word, but seemed to have read Scully’s face in the half-dark.

“There!” Ben suddenly called out behind them, shining his flashlight into a convexity on their left. The light hit the back of a man kneeling in the snow, looking down at his hands.

“Mulder!” Scully called again and ran up to him. “Mulder,  are you alright? What are you doing sitting in the snow?” 

Mulder didn’t acknowledge her. Not moving, and barely breathing, his eyes remained fixed on those of the snow creature. After what seemed like half an eternity, it released its final breath and those fathomless black eyes closed for the final time. Mulder blinked, the spell broken, and it was only then that he realised its features, and indeed its very form had melted away much like a snowman in spring, leaving its body indistinguishable from the snow surrounding it.

“Scully, did you see…” His voice trailed off, because of course she hadn’t. It was dark and her eyes would have been adjusting, and she had still been a good distance away when she spoke.

“See what?” she asked, but he just waved his hand vaguely. “Nothing.”

“I saw,” said a voice from behind him. “It’s dead, isn’t it?” Ben stepped up beside him, offering his sole arm in assistance. 

Mulder gripped his hand and rose, careful not to put the old man’s strength to the test. “Yeah, it’s gone.” 

At Mulder’s confirmation, Ben turned, and without another word, limped back in the direction from which they’d come.

Scully looked to Nora, who had been watching silently from afar. As Ben passed her, she turned and followed him out of the cave.

“Mulder, are you all right?” she asked, turning back to her partner.

“Yeah, Scully,” he said. “I’m okay.” 

Scully thought he looked anything but. “What happened in here?” she asked.

Mulder took a step back from the pile of melting snow, shaking his head.

"I don't know," he said. "The monster," he gestured vaguely towards the snow. "It was here."

Scully looked from Mulder to the melting bank of pristine snow that had clearly not been walked on. Then she turned to Mulder again and pointed her flashlight towards his eyes.

“Did you hit your head when you fell?” she asked, frowning as she tried to get a look at this pupils.

“No,” Mulder grumbled, shielding his unadjusted eyes from the bright light. Then he winced as the pain in his head reminded him of its existence. “Maybe a little,” he said, rubbing his forehead, “but I’m fine.”

Scully raised an eyebrow, but chose not to challenge him yet. She would examine him better once they got outside where there was more light.

“Well, this monster then?” she said instead, her eyes still studying Mulder. “Where did it go?”

“I…I’m not sure, Scully . ”  He almost stumbled over his feet and had to lean on her shoulder briefly. “It was dying, I could feel it. God, it was cold in there!”

Mulder rubbed his arms to generate some warmth and pulled his coat closer around himself. His teeth had started chattering.

“Come on, no use in standing around here freezing to death. You can tell us more when we get home. ” Nora’s tone left no room for objection, and Mulder nodded gratefully. 

* * *

Scully had to bite back a smile when she carried the large mug full of steaming hot tea to where Mulder was sitting on Nora’s floral-printed couch, huddled in a  fluffy blue  blanket.

“Nora insists this brew will work wonders,” s he explained, placing the mug on the coffee table by the couch. The two older people were in the kitchen, arguing over something or other. “ But first, let me have a look at you.”

Mulder sniffled a little as she lifted his chin up to shine a small flashlight into his eyes. Did she take that thing on all trips with her, he wondered.

“Pupils are reacting nicely. Do you feel any nausea or dizziness?”  She carefully slipped a hand into his hair to feel the bump on his head.

“No, nothing,” he assured her, trying to ignore the fact that she was so very close to his face.

“No concussion. But I’m afraid you might be coming down with a cold ." S he finalized her inspection, then sat down on the coffee table. Sitting lower than him, she seemed smaller than she actually was. “Drink this,” Scully said, lifting the mug to his lips.

After a few sips, he leaned back into the couch. Slowly, warmth returned to his body.

“It was just gone, Scully,” he started, starring off into a far corner of the room, “I was touching it, I could feel it breathe, and one moment to the next, it was like it turned into snow. We were  wrong. It didn't have a baby; i t was dying.”

Scully stayed quiet.

“It’s like…it dissolved, right under my hands.”  H e shook his head, and his partner wondered whether he had injured his head more seriously after all. “Mulder, are you sure…” she started, but was interrupted by Nora bursting into the room.

“The snow is melting! It really seems to be melting! All of it!” she called out, pulling the curtains back from her windows. “Let’s hope it stays that way!”

Ben limped into view just behind her. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” he grumbled, but the small smile on his gruff face belied his pessimistic words. He joined Nora at the window, his arm coming to rest on her hip as they looked out at the neighbourhood, quietly talking, their earlier argument apparently resolved.

Scully nudged her partner and nodded her head at the older couple. Mulder followed her gesture with his eyes, and a smile lit his face for the first time since they had left the cave. He touched Scully on the hand and jerked his head toward Nora’s front door. Scully nodded and stood.

“I think we’ll head back to the hotel,” she announced.

“We should get a good night's sleep,” Mulder added, “and then we can probably be on our way. The driving should be a little easier now.”

Ben turned away from the winder and nodded. “Help yourself to anything you need. I’ll be back before you leave.”

Nora walked over and opened her arms to Scully. “I can’t thank you both enough for everything you’ve done,” she said, enveloping the younger woman in a tight hug.

Scully laughed. “Well, I don’t know that we did very much, other than get lost and take advantage of your hospitality, but you’re very welcome in any case.”

“We’ll leave our contact information with Ben at the hotel,” Mulder added, bending down to receive his own hug. “Call us any time if this turns out to be just a temporary reprieve. We’ll do what we can for you.”

"Thank you," Nora mouthed, then moved back to join Ben a few steps behind. "Don't take it the wrong way if I say I hope I never have to see you two again," she added with a smile.

"No offense taken," Mulder replied with an easy grin. "But before we go, I have to ask. Why the freakishly long chain? I mean wouldn't a shorter chain have..." He trailed off as Nora cringed and Ben wandered off cursing under his breath. 

"Goddamned, idiotic, animal rights buffoons," drifted back over the old man's shoulder as he returned to his post at the window.

Nora gave a little shrug, but her eyes sparkled. "Sore subject," was all she added.

Scully bit her lip to contain a grin.

* * *

Next morning, after an early breakfast with Ben, Mulder and Scully found themselves back at their car, just outside the makeshift barricade where they had left it. Only a night had passed since they had left the cave, but already nearly all of the snow had melted away into great puddles of water.

“Old Ben and Nora will have a flood in their hands before they can start thinking about rebuilding,” Mulder noted, carefully avoiding a particularly large and deep-looking puddle right next to the car.

“Do you think they’ll stay?” Scully asked, going around to the passenger’s side. “Even with this…whatever it was…gone, it’s still a ghost town.”

Mulder gave her a lingering look and then shrugged. “If a snow monster didn’t manage to drive them away, I don’t see how a few drops of water would. Actually…” He paused, looking back towards the motel where they had left Ben, “they seem quite happy.”

“They do, ” Scully agreed. “I suppose going through something like this ties people together.” Mulder gave her a slow smile.

He checked his watch. “Well, we officially missed the convention in San Diego. I say it’s time we head back to the airport.”

“We are going to pay for that,” Scully sighed, “Participation was mandatory.”

“Relax, Scully. Your report will explain it all, won’t it?”

“Like it always does?”

Mulder chuckled. “Maybe we should stay a couple of days. Some sun might do us good.” Scully only rolled her eyes, and turned to look out of the window.

“Mulder pull over!” she suddenly called.

He came to a slow stop on the side of the deserted road. “What? What is it?”

“Do you have your binoculars?” she asked, causing him to fumble through his bag on the back seat. “Here,” He handed her a small black pair.

Scully fixed her gaze on the horizon. A distant line of hills and mountains pierced the sky. “These mountains…”

“What about them?” She handed him the binoculars.

Mulder’s eyes needed a few seconds to adjust. The low hanging clouds above the rocky peaks looked grey and cold. “It’s…snowing,” Slowly he dropped the binoculars. “Scully, you don’t think…”

Her brows furrowed. “These mountains are several thousand feet high. Snow is not unusual. Even this time of the year," she rationalized.

Mulder didn’t comment, but started the car and directed it back onto the road.

Neither of them spoke as they drove past a weathered road sign illustrated with palm trees that read ‘ _You are leaving Frostwell. Come back soon!_ ’

* * *

In the bushes beside the road, a small, snow-white creature blinked ancient black eyes and turned slowly away from the passing car, starting back toward its den. With its mother dead, it needed to sleep and grow stronger before it could look for food on its own.

The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Thank you so much for all for all the comments and kudos. We hope everyone enjoyed visiting Frostwell as much as we did. Now, bring on the revival!


End file.
